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The new 12-count indictment released on Thursday against Sam Bankman-Fried, the FTX crypto founder, includes bank fraud allegations and operating an unlicensed money transmitter in addition to the eight counts he already faces. He is also charged with campaign finance law violation and conspiracy to make unlawful political contributions.
Previously, he only faced charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud on customers; wire fraud on customers; conspiracy to commit wire fraud on lenders; wire fraud on lenders; conspiracy to commit commodities fraud; conspiracy to commit securities fraud; conspiracy to commit money laundering; and conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and violate campaign finance laws.
Bankman-Fried and others, when opening a bank account “falsely represented to a financial institution that the account would be used for trading and market making,” reads the indictment.
Ultimately, it was used to receive and transmit customer funds according to the superseding indictment
Bankman opened a company, with the obscure name of North Dimension to tell a “false story” to an unnamed bank that had been reluctant to open an account according to the indictment.
Bankman-Fried and other conspirators “agreed to and did make corporate contributions to candidates and committees in the Southern District of New York that were reported in the name of another person,” the indictment reads.
Bankman-Fried wanted to give at least $1 million to a pro-LGBTQ political action committee (PAC), but he couldn’t find anyone bisexual or gay at FTX whom he trusted, the document said.
One unnamed executive whose description matches Nishad Singh was urged to make the donation, while another executive did so for Republican causes, the document said.
In July, Singh gave $1.1 million to the LGBTQ Victory Fund Federal PAC, according to the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
“An internal Alameda spreadsheet noted over $100 million in political contributions, even though FEC records reflect no political contributions by Alameda for the 2022 midterm elections to candidates or PACs,” states the indictment. “Bankman-Fried's use of straw donors allowed him to evade contribution limits on individual donations to candidates to whom he had already donated,”
The indictment demands that Bankman-Fried forfeit hundreds of millions of dollars worth of assets, much of which has already been seized by the government, including over 55 million shares trading app Robinhood (HOOD) currently valued at $550 million. $140 million plus in cash held at Silvergate and Farmington State Banks in the name of FTX Digital Markets.
Bankman-Fried’s trial is set for October 2023.
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