The U.S. authorities charged Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, with bribing foreign officials. Prosecutors said the entrepreneur bribed one or more Chinese officials totaling about $40 million.
U.S. investigators believe the cryptocurrency exchange founder tried to bribe officials to unblock the accounts of his hedge fund, Alameda Research, which had been frozen by the PRC government. According to prosecutors, the fund had more than $1 billion in digital assets in its accounts.
This is the 13th criminal charge filed by U.S. authorities against Sam Bankman-Fried. On eight of them, including fraud and conspiracy to defraud, he pleaded not guilty. No statement has yet been made on the other criminal charges. To date, Sam Bankman-Fried has admitted only negligent management of the exchange. The three former colleagues under investigation have admitted to several of the criminal charges against them.