U.S. prosecutors today filed a superseding indictment against former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried alleging he bribed Chinese officials.
According to court filings from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, “in or about 2021,” Bankman-Fried “authorized and directed a bribe of at least $40 million to one or more Chinese government officials.”
Why would he want to spend so much to buy influence with officials in a country where crypto is legally restricted? Per the same filing, the “purpose of the bribe was to influence and induce one or more Chinese officials to unfreeze certain Alameda trading accounts containing over $1 billion in cryptocurrency” that had been frozen by the country.
Given the fraught geopolitical climate between the United States and China, TechCrunch doubts that this particular bit of the case will serve to endear the former entrepreneur to his government.
This news comes a day after the U.S. government took action against Binance founder Changpeng Zhao. Zhao and several other corporate leaders at the world’s largest crypto exchange are being sued by the U.S. Commodity Futures and Trading Commission.