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(Trends Wide) — FTX founder Samuel Bankman Fried was indicted on eight criminal counts including wire fraud and conspiracy to misuse client funds.
Prosecutors for the Southern District of New York on Tuesday charged Bankman-Fried with wire fraud and multiple counts of conspiracy, including conspiring to defraud investors, lenders and the United States; commit securities and commodity fraud and money laundering, and violate campaign finance laws.
Prosecutors allege that Bankman-Fried conspired with others in numerous schemes, including the misuse of client deposits at FTX that were used to cover the expenses of his Alameda Research hedge fund. Bankman-Fried also allegedly defrauded Alameda lenders by providing misleading information about the hedge fund’s financial condition.
The 14-page indictment also alleges that Bankman-Fried conspired with others to violate federal election laws by making political donations to federal candidates and joint fundraising committees between 2020 and November 2022, in excess of federal legal limits and in name of other people.
Bankman Fried was arrested in the Bahamas on Monday after US prosecutors filed criminal charges against him, according to a Bahamas government statement. The 30-year-old man was arrested without incident at his apartment complex shortly after 6 pm ET in Nassau, according to a Royal Bahamas Police statement. He is due to appear in court on Tuesday, authorities added.
Bankman-Fried is a 30-year-old cryptocurrency celebrity who became an outcast overnight when his company suffered a cash crunch and filed for bankruptcy last month, leaving at least one million depositors unable to access their funds.
In the four weeks since FTX filed for bankruptcy, he has tried to portray himself as a somewhat hapless CEO who acted impulsively, while denying allegations that he defrauded FTX clients.
“I did not intentionally commit fraud,” he told the BBC this weekend. “I didn’t want any of this to happen. I certainly wasn’t as competent as I thought,” she added.
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