FTX CEO Samuel Benjamin Bankman-Fried: Cryptocurrency, fraud, money laundering, campaign finance offenses
(Samuel Benjamin Bankman-Fried, Image credit: Twitter)
(Updated: 12/18/2022) – Following his mysterious December 12 arrest in the Bahamas on undisclosed charges, more information has come to light as to exactly why former billionaire and crypto entrepreneur and investor, Samuel Benjamin Bankman-Fried, was taken into custody and the serious charges the founder and former CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX now faces.
On Tuesday, a federal grand jury charged 30-year-old Bankman-Fried, aka “SBF,” of Stanford, California, with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and conspiracy to defraud the Federal Election Commission and commit campaign finance violations.
The charges arose from an alleged wide-ranging scheme by Bankman-Fried to misappropriate billions of dollars of customer funds deposited with FTX, the international cryptocurrency exchange founded by Bankman-Fried, and mislead investors and lenders to FTX and to Alameda Research, the cryptocurrency hedge fund also founded by Bankman-Fried
“The Justice Department has filed charges alleging that Samuel Bankman-Fried perpetrated a range of offenses in a global scheme to deceive and defraud customers and lenders of FTX and Alameda, the defendant’s crypto hedge fund, as well as a conspiracy to defraud the United States government,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland.
“We allege that the defendant conspired to defraud customers by misappropriating their deposits; to defraud lenders; to commit securities fraud and money laundering; and to violate campaign finance laws. As this indictment demonstrates, the U.S. Department of Justice will aggressively investigate and prosecute alleged criminal wrongdoing in the financial system and violations of federal elections laws. We will continue to work to ensure U.S. capital markets operate honestly and with the integrity that investors, lenders, and the American people are entitled to.”
“One month ago, FTX collapsed, causing billions of dollars in losses to its customers, lenders, and investors,” said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams for the Southern District of New York. “Now, a federal grand jury in New York has indicted the former founder and chief executive officer of FTX and charged him with crimes related to the phenomenal downfall of that one-time cryptocurrency exchange, including fraud on customers, investors, lenders, and our campaign finance system. As today’s charges make clear, this was not a case of mismanagement or poor oversight, but of intentional fraud, plain and simple.”
At his peak, Bankman-Fried was boasting a net worth of $26 billion which dropped to $10.5 billion in October and dropped again to $99 million in November. By November 11, 2022, Bankman-Fried was shown to have no material wealth at all, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
But before he lost all his money, he managed to donate $40 million, mostly to Democratic candidates that were running for office during the 2022 midterm elections, according to The Washington Post.
See: FTX files for bankruptcy and Sam Bankman-Fried is out as CEO ~ Protocol
“As the indictment alleges, Bankman-Fried knowingly defrauded the customers of FTX.com through the misappropriation of the customer deposits to pay expenses and debts of a different company he also owned as well as make other investments,” said Assistant Director Michael J. Driscoll of the FBI New York Field Office. “If you deceive and defraud your customers, the FBI will be persistent in our efforts to bring you to justice.”
According to the indictment, Bankman-Fried was the founder and chief executive officer of FTX, an international cryptocurrency exchange. Since 2019, Bankman-Fried and his co-conspirators perpetrated a scheme to defraud customers of FTX by misappropriating billions of dollars of those customers’ funds. Bankman-Fried allegedly used billions of dollars of FTX customer funds for his personal use, to make investments and millions of dollars of political contributions to federal political candidates and committees, and to repay billions of dollars in loans owed by Alameda Research, a cryptocurrency hedge fund also founded by the Bankman-Fried. Bankman-Fried also allegedly defrauded lenders to Alameda Research and equity investors in FTX by concealing his misuse of customer deposits in financial information that was provided to them.
Bankman-Fried and his co-conspirators made millions of dollars in political contributions funded by Alameda Research to federal political candidates and committees in advance of the 2022 election. To conceal the fact that those contributions were paid for using funds from a corporation and to evade contribution limits and reporting requirements, Bankman-Fried caused contributions to be reported in the names of co-conspirators rather than in the name of the true source of the funds.
See: FTX’s Bankman-Fried donated about $40M this political cycle. Here’s who benefited ~ The Washington Post
Bankman-Fried is charged with two counts of wire fraud conspiracy, two counts of wire fraud, and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, each of which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. He is also charged with conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and conspiracy to defraud the United States and commit campaign finance violations, each of which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
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Also see: Democrats plan to relinquish donations from FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried ~ The Washington Examiner, 12/17/22
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(Source: Department of Justice)
Posted by Richard Webster Ace News Today / Follow Richard on Facebook and Twitter
