FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Faces New Criminal Charges Alleging Fraud, Illegal Campaign Contributions

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is facing new charges in a federal indictment that accuses him of engaging in conduct that led to his cryptocurrency exchange's collapse.

The indictment, which was unsealed on Thursday, includes 12 criminal counts, up from the previous eight, and includes charges of conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business and conspiracy to commit bank fraud. According to the indictment, Bankman-Fried was also involved in a straw donor scheme to avoid public reporting of his political contributions.

The indictment accuses him of using customer funds to run a $40-million political influence campaign.

"To avoid certain contributions being publicly reported in his name, Bankman-Fried conspired to and did have certain political contributions made in the names of two other FTX executives," the indictment said. 

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The document describes an incident in which Bankman-Fried and his co-conspirators agreed to contribute at least $1 million to a super PAC that supported a candidate running for a United States Congressional seat and appeared to be affiliated with pro-LGBTQ issues.

The conspirators chose an individual only identified as "CC-1" or co-conspirator 1 to be the donor.

The new indictment was unsealed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, where Bankman-Fried was originally charged.

"We are hard at work and will remain so until justice is done," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. 

Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to the previous charges and has yet to enter a plea on the new charges.

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