United Sates Attorney for the Southern District of New York, the United States Attorney General and the Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Tuesday announced the unsealing of an indictment against Samuel Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX, an international cryptocurrency exchange.
Also read; FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried arrested in Bahamas
Samuel Bankman-Fried was charged with;
- Two counts of wire fraud conspiracy.
- Two counts of wire fraud.
- One count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.
- One count of conspiracy to commit commodities fraud.
- One count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud.
- One count of conspiracy to defraud the United states and commit campaign finance violations.
Each of charges 1,2 and 3 carries a maximum sentence of 2 years, while each of charges 4, 5 and 6 carries a maximum sentence of five years.
The indictment also alleges that Bankman-Fried and others made “contributions to candidates for federal office, joint fundraising committees, and independent expenditure committees in the names of other people, totaling at least $25,000 in one year, and also made contributions from a corporation to candidates for federal office and joint fundraising committees totaling at least $25,000 in a year.”
In addition to any penalty for the offenses themselves, prosecutors are seeking forfeiture of “any and all property, real and personal, that constitutes or is derived from proceeds traceable to the commission of said offenses.
Nnamdi Maduakor is a Writer, Investor and Entrepreneur