Sam Bankman-Fried charged with fraudulent campaign donations exceeding $100M

A superseding indictment filed Aug. 14 charges FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried with illegal campaign financing activity.

According to the prosecutor’s filing, Bankman-Fried contributed more than $100 million to Democratic and Republican campaigns in an effort to influence cryptocurrency regulation.

Additionally, Bankman-Fried has made donations in the name of Nishad Singh, former Director of Engineering at FTX, according to the filing. Apparently, Bankman-Fried wired funds to executives’ bank accounts before those individuals made donations in their names in order to conceal the fact that the donations came from customer deposits held at Alameda Research.

Prosecutors filed a superseding indictment against ex-FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried that reasserts charges of campaign finance violations.

Prosecutors allege that Bankman-Fried was able to “maximize FTX’s political influence” through these donations. He allegedly lobbied regulators and Congress to support pro-crypto legislation for FTX’s own benefit. Furthermore, despite its wrongdoing, he allegedly used those political connections to improve FTX’s public image.

Previously filed charges were modified by a superseding indictment that included the relevant facts. Due to the fact that those charges were not included in an earlier extradition agreement with the Bahamas, prosecutors temporarily suspended charges regarding Bankman-Fried’s campaign financing activities in July.

Later, on Aug. 8, prosecutors announced plans to reintroduce those campaign financing charges in the current superseding indictment.

Though the latest filing mentions campaign financing violations, it does not include those violations in its counts against the accused. The relevant charges were previously listed as “Conspiracy to Defraud the United States and Violate the Campaign Finance Laws.”

In March and February 2023, after the first indictment was unsealed in December 2022, prosecutors filed superseding indictments against Bankman-Fried.

Bankman-Fried’s trial is scheduled for October. His bail was revoked on Aug. 11, and he is currently being held at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center.