The U.S. Attorney’s Office released a new superseding indictment against former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, with seven counts that are nearly identical in nature to the original superseding indictment filed when he was first extradited from the Bahamas at the end of last year.
In an Aug. 14 court filing, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams charged Bankman-Fried with four counts of wire fraud, one count of securities fraud, one count of commodities fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Included in the fraud charge on FTX’s customers was an allegation of Bankman-Fried’s use of misappropriated customer money to help fund over $100 million in political contributions before the 2022 election.
“At Bankman-Fried’s directions, and to conceal the source of the funds used for the contributions, some of the political contributions were made in the names of FTX executives, including Nishad Singh,” the indictment stated.
In doing so, prosecutors alleged that he was able to evade restrictions on certain types of political contributions in order to maximize FTX’s political influence.
Earlier this year, many believed that the campaign finance charge against Bankman-Fried would be excluded from the charges against him entirely, after the Bahamas objected to the charge filed on the grounds that it was a violation of the extradition treaty with the U.S.
In fact, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) agreed not to pursue that particular charge in a letter to Judge Lewis Kaplan last month, but later informed the court that it would consider the evidence against Bankman-Fried in relation to the campaign finance charge as part of another count.
“The superseding indictment will make clear that Mr. Bankman-Fried remains charged with conducting an illegal campaign finance scheme as part of the fraud and money laundering schemes originally charged,” wrote U.S. Attorney Damian Williams in an Aug. 8 letter.
