(ReclaimingAmerica.net) – Democrat megadonor Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced former CEO and founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has been slapped with four additional criminal charges.
The extra charges against him came via a superseding indictment in federal court in New York as part of US prosecutors’ push to expand their criminal case against him.
In December 2022, before he was extradited to the United States from the Bahamas, Bankman-Fried faced eight criminal counts.
On Thursday, an updated indictment showed the total number of federal charges against the former billionaire had grown to 12, The Financial Times reported, as cited by Breitbart News.
The new indictment was unsealed in US District Court in Manhattan, where Bankman-Fried was charged two months ago.
The new charges against the pro-Democrat fallen crypto king include “securities fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, and operating an unlicensed money transmitting business.”
“The defendant, well knew FTX – which by early 2022 claimed to handle approximately $15 billion in daily trading volume on its platforms – was not focused on investor or client protection, nor was it the legitimate business that Bankman-Fried claimed it was,” the indictment alleges, as cited by CNN.
The Financial Times report reveals the new charge sheet shows evidence from some of his closest people – his former girlfriend, Caroline Ellison, who headed FTX’s trading affiliate Alameda, and the other FTX co-founder Gary Wang.
In December, Ellison and Wang pleaded guilty to criminal charges while deciding to cooperate with the prosecution.
Bankman-Fried himself has pleaded not guilty to all eight original charges. His trial date is set for October 2023.
According to the 39-page charge sheet, Bankman-Fried posted “a series of false and misleading tweets” after public revelations in November were made about a “hole” in the balance sheet of his cryptocurrency exchange.
At the same time, the document also alleges that the former billionaire donated tens of millions of dollars to political campaigns in an attempt to influence politicians.
According to the US prosecutors, Bankman-Fried allegedly made over 300 illegal political contributions with corporate money through straw donors.
Those were identified in the indictments as CC-1 and CC-2, but CNN reported their names were Nishad Singh and Ryan Salame. Neither has been charged with crimes, and their lawyers refused to comment.
“We are hard at work and will remain so until justice is done,” Manhattan US Attorney Damian Williams declared in a statement on the new indictment.
Bankman-Fried is presently out on a $250 million bond and remains under house arrest at his parents’ home in Palo Alto, California.
