Bankman-Fried faces new criminal charges, accused of concealing political donations | – #BankmanFried #faces #criminal #charges #accused #concealing #political #donations
NEW YORK, Feb 23 (Reuters) – Sam Bankman-Fried on Thursday charged the founder of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX with more than 300 illegal political new in an expanded indictment charging him with conspiracy to commit donation crime faced with the charges.
Bankman-Fried is now 12 crime faces charges, including four counts of fraud, eight conspiracyup from the eight charges in the previous indictment.
The new indictment increases pressure on the 30-year-old former billionaire, who has already seen two former top lieutenants plead guilty. He is also trying to convince the judge to keep him free on bail.
A spokeswoman for Bankman-Fried declined to comment.
Prosecutors said Bankman-Fried and two other former FTX executives paid tens of millions to influence lawmakers to pass laws favorable to the company. dollars to donate conspiracy did.
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Prosecutors said the donations were illegal because they were made through “straw” donors or corporate foundations, allowing Bankman-Fried to evade contribution limits.
Although Bankman-Fried is one of the largest donors to Democratic campaigns in the 2022 midterm elections, the indictment says she “did not want to be identified as a left-leaning partisan or to have her name publicly endorsed by Republican candidates.”
Prosecutors said Bankman-Fried directed donations primarily to left-leaning candidates and organizations, and others to Republicans, with multiple donations funded by hedge fund Alameda Research and including FTX client funds.
An employee of Bankman-Fried, the indictment says political “You being the left side of our spending means a lot of bullshit for operational purposes,” the adviser told one of the executives, identified as CC-1.
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After founding FTX in 2019, Bankman-Fried, about 26 billion dollars has boomed in the value of Bitcoin and other digital assets to gain net worth.
The exchange collapsed in November amid customer withdrawals after the exchange mixed assets with Alameda.
Bankman-Fried’s new indictment details how she used stolen FTX customer funds to cover Alameda losses and fund donations, “taking advantage of the trust FTX customers placed in her and the exchange.”
Additional charges bank to operate fraud and unlicensed money transfer business conspiracy includes.
Prosecutors said Bankman-Fried told an unnamed California bank that she wanted to open an account for a trading company, when in fact she would use the account to process deposits and withdrawals for FTX clients.
Prosecutors said bank before him such operations execution said he did not want to do it.
Former Alameda executive Caroline Ellison and former FTX executive Gary Wang pleaded guilty to fraud charges in December and agreed to cooperate with the investigation.
Reporting by Luc Cohen and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Mark Porter and Anna Driver Edited by
Our standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Luc Cohen
2023-02-23 23:03:09
Source – reuters
Translation“24 HOURS”