The 31-year-old former billionaire was charged with seven counts of conspiracy and fraud after the collapse of FTX. He has pleaded not guilty to previous charges and may very well plead not guilty to these new ones. (Related: Biden's Justice Department drops campaign finance charge against Democratic megadonor Sam Bankman-Fried who illegally paid off Democrats.)
The new indictment no longer includes the charge of conspiracy to violate campaign finance laws, with federal prosecutors claiming they dropped the charge to appease the government of the Bahamas, where FTX was based and where Bankman-Fried was extradited from.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan claimed that this new indictment would "make clear that Mr. Bankman-Fried remains charged with conducting an illegal campaign finance scheme as part of the fraud and money laundering schemes originally charged."
Bankman-Fried, whose personal fortune was once estimated at $26 billion, was formerly one of the biggest political donors in Washington. The indictment alleged that his donations went to both Democratic and Republican campaigns and were focused on influencing cryptocurrency regulations.
In the filings submitted to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams alleged that Bankman-Fried "misappropriated and embezzled FTX customer deposits."
This resulted in more than $100 million "in campaign contributions to Democrats and Republicans" being used to "seek to influence cryptocurrency regulation."
"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," reads the indictment. "Which would, in turn, allow the misappropriation scheme to continue."
SBF directed donations through FTX executives to skirt contribution limits
The indictment further alleged that Bankman-Fried directed at least two FTX executives to donate to certain Democratic and Republican campaigns in order to evade contribution limits. He also ordered them to conceal where the money came from.
Bankman-Fried allegedly did this by ordering customer money from FTX's sister trading firm, Alameda, to be wired to the personal bank accounts of two FTX executives, former engineering director Nishad Singh and one currently unnamed executive. These executives then made the donations in their own names and thereby were able to maximize FTX's potential political influence.
"By directing donations through Singh and another FTX executive, Bankman-Fried was able to evade restrictions on certain types of political contributions, and thereby maximize FTX's political influence," reads the indictment. "Bankman-Fried also used these connections with politicians and government officials to falsely burnish the public image of FTX as a legitimate exchange."
An analysis by CBS News found that Bankman-Fried made more than $40 million in donations in the 2022 election cycle, with almost all of these donations going to Democrats and their campaigns. But the new indictment alleged that Bankman-Fried may have also donated to Republicans using undisclosed "dark" donations.
This indictment is the latest in the long list of charges Bankman-Fried has faced since his extradition from the Bahamas in December 2022. He was previously freed on bail and confined to his parents' home in Palo Alto, California on a $250 million bond.
But Kaplan remanded him to jail ahead of his Oct. 2 trial after finding probable cause that Bankman-Fried may have attempted to intimidate or influence witnesses in his criminal cases by allegedly sharing his former romantic partner Caroline Ellison's personal writings with a New York Times reporter.
Prosecutors claim the move was intended to discredit Ellison, who is expected to testify against him in October. Bankman-Fried is currently being held in Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center.
Learn more about the state of cryptocurrency in the United States at CryptoCult.news.
Watch this episode of "The Kim Iversen Show" as host and veteran journalist Kim Iversen speculates on why the administration of President Joe Biden refuses to go ahead and charge Democratic megadonor Sam Bankman-Fried for campaign finance violations.
This video is from the Pool Pharmacy channel on Brighteon.com.
More related stories:
SEC reveals Sam Bankman-Fried squandered FTX missing funds on political donations and himself.
Democrats SCRAMBLING to hide evidence linking them to former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried.
Sam Bankman-Fried is not alone: Some of history's greatest monsters were Democratic megadonors.
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