• FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried was charged by the Justice Department in a superseding indictment on Tuesday of allegedly paying millions of dollars of bribes to a member of the Chinese communist government.
• Several companies controlled by Bankman-Fried filed for bankruptcy at the end of last year after customers and investors learned that FTX had improperly commingled funds with sister trading company Alameda Research.
• Bankman-Fried “authorized and directed a bribe of at least $40 million to one or more Chinese government officials,” the new indictment said. “The purpose of the bribe was to influence and induce one or more Chinese government officials to unfreeze certain Alameda trading accounts containing over $1 billion in cryptocurrency, which had been frozen by Chinese authorities.”

Tagged: Crime Blotter