[NEWS] US Department of Justice indicts former FTX CEO Bankman-Fried on campaign finance charges

On the 14th, the US Department of Justice announced that it had indicted Sam Bankman-Fried, former CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which collapsed last year, for violating campaign finance laws.

According to the indictment, Bankman-Fried misused FTX customer funds to make $100 million in political donations before the 2022 US midterm elections. At that time, he instructed two FTX executives to make donations to Democratic and Republican lawmakers and to conceal the source of the funds.

The indictment also states that "Bankman-Fried used his influence to lobby Congress and regulators to support laws and regulations that would allow FTX to continue accepting funds from customers and lead to the growth of the company."

Bankman-Fried was indicted in December last year on eight charges, including fraud and money laundering, in connection with FTX's collapse.

Meanwhile, federal prosecutors in Manhattan announced last month that they would drop the charges after the Bahamas, where FTX was based, said they had no intention of extraditing Bankman-Fried to face campaign finance charges.

The prosecutors then told U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan that they would "disclose that Bankman-Fried engaged in an illegal campaign finance scheme as part of the fraud and money laundering indictment he was originally charged with."

Bankman-Fried has previously donated to Democratic lawmakers. In the 2020 U.S. presidential election, it was revealed that he donated $5.2 million (about 760 million yen) to the campaign of Democratic candidate Biden, who would later become president.

According to Reuters, the indictment does not name the two executives who received instructions from Bankman-Fried to make the donations, but court documents and the Federal Election Commission database reveal that they are Nishad Singh, former engineering chief at FTX, and Ryan Salame, former CEO of FTX Digital Markets.

Singh knew that the funds used for the political donations were FTX client assets and has already pleaded guilty. Salame also told his family that Bankman-Fried was trying to make donations to remove Democratic and Republican lawmakers who oppose cryptocurrencies, and that "the money would be funneled through me."

Bankman-Fried continues to plead not guilty to all charges against him. His first hearing is scheduled for October 2, and in connection with that, Bankman-Fried has been re-incarcerated on suspicion of witness tampering and other charges.

Source:Reuters
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