FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried charged with 12 counts in new indictment

Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, facilitated hundreds of illegal political donations totaling tens of millions of dollars, court documents unsealed on Thursday have alleged.

The accusations were contained in a superseding indictment that contained four new charges.

The new charges include conspiracy to commit bank fraud and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transfer business, according to ABC News.

Bankman-Fried was one of the most prolific donors to liberal candidates, but he and co-conspirators are alleged to have given more than 300 donations to candidates using the names of a straw donor.

Some of those gifts allowed Bankman-Fried to get around political donation limits, while others were illegal because they used corporate money, prosecutors said.

Because Bankman-Fried did not want to be affiliated with either Democratic or Republican candidates, prosecutors say, he coordinated the giving with two other FTX executives so he did not appear to be leaning one way or the other.

In 2022, Bankman-Fried wanted to make a donation of at least $1m to the super Pac of a US Senate candidate who was pro-LGBTQ+, according to the filing. A political consultant working with Bankman-Fried recommended the use of a straw donor.

The new charges only add to the already significant legal trouble for Bankman-Fried, once considered a wunderkind of the cryptocurrency world.