“He leveraged this influence, in turn, to lobby Congress and regulatory agencies to support legislation and regulation he believed would make it easier for FTX to continue to accept customer deposits and grow.”
On Monday, prosecutors charged disgraced former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried with seven counts of fraud and money laundering, alleging he had stolen over $100 million in customer funds to make contributions to political campaigns.
Bankman-Fried was originally indicted for conspiracy to make unlawful campaign contributions in 2022, however, prosecutors dropped that charge in order to ensure the Bahamas allowed for his extradition back to the United States. The superseding indictment stays true to that agreement, and does not include that charge.
According to Reuters, the US Attorney's Office in Manhattan filed a superseding indictment on Monday evening, accusing him of directing other FTX executives to make donations in order to evade contribution limits to push for crypto-friendly regulations.
"He leveraged this influence, in turn, to lobby Congress and regulatory agencies to support legislation and regulation he believed would make it easier for FTX to continue to accept customer deposits and grow," the indictment read.
"The defendant's use of customer deposits to conduct a political influence campaign was part of the wire fraud scheme charged in the original indictment," it continued. "And as part of the originally charged money laundering scheme, the defendant also concealed the source of his fraudulent proceeds through political straw donations."
Before FTX's collapse, Bankman-Fried had donated $39.8 million to Democratic political campaigns, making him the party's second-largest donor behind George Soros.
Bankman-Fried had been under house arrest at his parents' home, however, he was recently ordered to go to jail in New York City for violating bail conditions.
His trial is set for October.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
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