Sam Bankman-Fried Charged With Attempt to Bribe Chinese Officials With $40 Million

Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has been charged by federal prosecutors with attempting to bribe “one or more” Chinese government officials with $40 million in order to unlock $1 billion worth of digital assets that belonged to his hedge fund, Alameda Research.

Bankman-Fried currently faces eight criminal counts of conspiracy and fraud. The trial is scheduled for October and if convicted on all counts, he could face more than 155 years in prison.

The Southern District Court of New York released a new charge against Bankman-Fried, alleging that he devised fraudulent schemes to steal deposits from FTX in order to finance risky bets at Alameda Research.

Three of his former business partners have already pleaded guilty to related crimes, including CEO of Alameda Research Caroline Ellison and co-founder of FTX Gary Wang. Bankman-Fried remains under house arrest at his parents’ Palo Alto home. 

Recently, Bankman-Fried’s bail conditions were modified by Judge Lewis A. Kaplan to restrict his internet usage. Concerns regarding his usage of a virtual private network (VPN), which conceals the location of an internet connection, prompted this action.

According to the change, Bankman-Fried will only be permitted to use a VPN when viewing a database on a laptop provided by his attorneys in order to help him prepare for his case.