Sam Bankman-Fried charged with fraudulent campaign donations exceeding $100M

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of FTX, is now facing charges of illegal campaign financing activity, per superseding indictment filed Aug. 14.

The prosecutor’s filing alleges that Bankman-Fried contributed more than $100 million to Democratic and Republican campaigns with the intention of influencing cryptocurrency regulation. Those funds were supposedly drawn from customer deposits.

The filing further alleges that Bankman-Fried made donations in the names of other executives, including Nishad Singh, FTX’s former Director of Engineering. This approach allegedly intended to conceal that those donations came from customer deposits held at Alameda Research. Bankman-Fried supposedly had funds wired to executives’ bank accounts before those individuals made donations in their names.

Prosecutors allege that Bankman-Fried was able to “maximize FTX’s political influence” through these donations. He allegedly lobbied regulators and Congress to support pro-crypto legislation for FTX’s own benefit. Furthermore, despite its wrongdoing, he allegedly used those political connections to improve FTX’s public image.

Superseding indictment modifies charges

The relevant facts were included in a superseding indictment, which modifies previous charges. Events in July suggested prosecutors would temporarily withdraw charges around Bankman-Fried’s campaign financing activities because those charges were not part of an earlier extradition agreement with the Bahamas.

Later, on Aug. 8, prosecutors announced plans to reintroduce those campaign financing charges in the current superseding indictment.

Though the latest filing mentions campaign financing violations, it does not include those violations in its counts against the accused. The relevant charges were previously listed as “Conspiracy to Defraud the United States and Violate the Campaign Finance Laws.”

Prosecutors filed other superseding indictments against Bankman-Fried in March and February 2023 after the first indictment was unsealed in December 2022.

Bankman-Fried’s trial is set to take place in October. His bail was revoked on Aug. 11, and he is currently being held in Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center.

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