As a seasoned researcher with extensive experience in the field of financial crimes, I must say that this case involving Sam Bankman-Fried and the alleged bribes paid to Chinese officials is quite intriguing. The use of cryptocurrencies for illicit activities is a relatively new phenomenon, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that they can be just as effective in facilitating bribery and corruption as traditional methods.
U.S. legal authorities are seeking court approval to take control of cryptocurrencies, which they suspect were used in bribe payments to Chinese government officials by the co-founder of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried.
In a court case filed on November 12th in a New York District Court, prosecutors claimed that the Binance account, which was worth approximately $8.6 million by December 12, 2023, but had since grown to around $18.5 million due to market growth, was involved in laundering funds linked to bribes prior to FTX’s collapse at the end of 2022.
As a crypto investor, I recall an incident in 2021 when Chinese authorities seized funds from two of Alameda Research’s crypto accounts on Chinese exchanges, amounting to approximately $1 billion in digital assets.
On November 16, 2021, it was claimed that Bankman-Fried transferred $40 million in Tether (USDT) as a bribe to a personal wallet, followed swiftly by the unfreezing of Alameda’s accounts.
Following the unfreezing of the accounts, Sam Bankman-Fried reportedly approved further transactions worth tens of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency to finish off the alleged bribe, according to the prosecution.
On November 9, 2023, the account in question was established, and it had a total of five associated deposit accounts. These accounts, as per US authorities, were used to mask or camouflage the purported bribe that they allege was given by Bankman-Fried.
As reported by the prosecution, this particular account consistently saw both inbound Bitcoin (BTC) and stablecoin deposits as well as outgoing withdrawals on a frequent basis. Moreover, five separate wallets received almost daily deposits of BTC and stablecoins, which were subsequently converted into various other cryptocurrencies.
In her testimony, Caroline Ellison, a previous leader at Alameda Research, mentioned that an approximate sum of $150 million was given as a bribe.
On December 21, 2023, during Bankman-Fried’s court proceedings, an order from Judge Lewis Kaplan led to the confiscation of the account.
According to prosecutors, these digital assets – Solana, Cardano, Ripple (XRP), Internet Computer, and Avalanche – are still being held.
After the fall of FTX in 2022, Sam Bankman-Fried stood trial before a jury and was found guilty on seven criminal charges. On March 28, Judge Kaplan handed down a sentence of 25 years in prison for him.
Initially, there were six extra accusations against him, such as bank fraud and conspiring to bribe Chinese officials due to claims that he had bribed officials in China. However, these charges were ultimately dismissed.
On September 13th, lawyers for Sam Bankman-Fried submitted an appeal stating that the FTX founder was not afforded a fair trial.
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2024-11-13 08:10