Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried charged with foreign bribery

FTX founder, Sam Bankman-Fried has been accused of bribing Chinese officials with 40 million dollars for gaining access to frozen crypto assets worth over one billion dollars in value. The founder is facing several charges after the crypto exchange firm faced an equivalent of a bank run in November 2022 and soon filed for bankruptcy afterward.

The federal indictment alleged that Bankman-Fried succeeded in bribing the Chinese officials and eventually succeeded in unfreezing the trading accounts of Almeda Research, a sister company of FTX, which held crypto valued at over $1 billion. Bankman-Fried is charged under Foreign Corrupt Business Practice Act, federal legislation to prosecute corporations who pay bribes to operate their businesses in foreign jurisdictions.

Sam Bankman-Fried is currently facing charges in 13 criminal courts. The previous charges include such as securities fraud, money laundering, campaign finance violations, and operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business.

FTX (short for Future Exchange) was a cryptocurrency exchange and trading platform that was founded in 2019 by Sam Bankman-Fried and Gary Wang. In 2017, Bankman-Fried established Alameda Research acting as a crypto trading firm. In November 2022, reports revealed that FTX was funneling money to its sister arm, Alameda Research. Subsequently, the world’s biggest crypto exchange, Binance liquidated its $580 million holding in FTX which further led to depositors rushing to withdraw their investments. Unable to secure financial help, the firm eventually declared bankruptcy.