U.S. prosecutors have asked a court for permission to seize cryptocurrency that FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried allegedly bribed Chinese officials with.
In a Nov. 12 lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in New York, prosecutors allege that the Binance account (worth about $8.6 million as of Dec. 12, 2023, but that jumped to about $18.5 million due to the market-wide rally): It was claimed that it was used for this purpose. Laundered funds used for bribes before FTX collapsed in late 2022.
In 2021, Chinese law enforcement froze two of Alameda Research’s accounts on Chinese cryptocurrency exchanges that held $1 billion in cryptocurrencies, according to the lawsuit.
They alleged that Bankman-Fried sent a $40 million Tether (USDT) bribe to a personal wallet on November 16, 2021, and Alameda’s account was soon unfrozen.
Bankman-Fried reportedly paid $40 million in bribes to Chinese officials to unfreeze accounts holding $1 billion worth of cryptocurrency. Source: CourtListener
“After confirming that the account had been unfrozen, Bankman-Fried authorized additional payments worth tens of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency to complete the bribery,” prosecutors said.
US authorities said the account they were trying to access was set up on November 9, 2023, and involved five savings accounts. The account was used to “conceal or disguise” alleged bribes paid by Bankman-Fried.
According to the prosecution, there was a regular ‘flow of deposits and withdrawals’ to the account, and Bitcoin (BTC) and stablecoins were deposited ‘almost daily’ into the five wallets and converted to other cryptocurrencies.
Caroline Ellison, former CEO of Alameda Research, said in testimony that the total bribes paid amounted to about $150 million.
The accounts were seized by order of Judge Lewis Kaplan on December 21, 2023, during Bankman-Fried’s trial.
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Prosecutors said the account still holds Solana (SOL), Cardano (ADA), XRP (XRP), Internet Computer (IC), and Avalanche (AVAX).
After FTX collapsed in 2022, Bankman-Fried went to a jury trial and was found guilty of seven felonies. On March 28, Judge Kaplan sentenced him to 25 years in prison.
He initially faced six additional charges, including bank fraud and conspiracy to commit foreign bribery, in connection with his alleged bribery of Chinese officials, but these were dismissed.
On September 13, Bankman-Fried’s lawyers filed an appeal, arguing that the FTX founder was not treated fairly at trial.
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