FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) is facing additional charges in the latest superseding indictment unsealed on Feb. 23.
The indictment — unsealed in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, where SBF was originally charged — includes a total of 12 charges, four of which are new. It also reveals new details of the illegal political donations SBF made to curry favor in Washington.
The new indictment charged SBF with securities fraud; wire fraud; multiple counts of conspiracy related to committing wire fraud on Alameda’s lenders and FTX customers; money laundering; operating an unlicensed money transmitting business; bank fraud; and illegal campaign contributions.
SBF has so far plead not guilty to all charges in his case.
The document details how SBF allegedly stole billions from customers and investors to prop up the operations of both FTX and its sister firm Alameda Research. It further accuses SBF of using the stolen funds for speculative investments and his charitable donations.
According to the indictment, SBF contributed tens of millions of dollars in illegal campaign donations to both Democrats and Republicans in an attempt to “purchase influence over cryptocurrency regulation in Washington, D.C.”
According to the indictment:
“[SBF and his associates] made over 300 political contributions, totaling tens of millions of dollars, that were unlawful because they were made in the name of a straw donor or paid for with corporate funds.”
Furthermore, the document claims SBF made concerted efforts to keep his donations to republicans “dark.”
The filing also claims that SBF tried to hide certain political donations by donating the money under the “names of two other FTX executives.”
The document does not name the two executives; however, based on Open Secrets records, the executives are likely Nishad Singh and Ryan Salame. Singh donated to one of the PACs named in the indictment, while Salame seems to have donated millions to Republican PACs. The two have not been charged with any wrongdoing so far.
The straw donor scheme was operated and executed in part via encrypted messaging app Signal, according to the filing.
Additionally, SBF and his two unnamed co-conspirators made a concerted effort to hide the scheme by recording “the outgoing wire transfers from Alameda to individuals’ bank accounts for purposes of making contributions as Alameda ‘loans’ or ‘expenses.’ ”
