FTX co-founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried faces four fresh counts of fraud, according to court filings unsealed Thursday.
The new charges are conspiracy to commit bank fraud, conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business, securities fraud, and fraud with the purpose or sale of a derivative.
The new criminal counts pile on to the charges Bankman-Fried faced in December in connection with the collapse of his crypto empire, which had had far-reaching effects on the crypto sector. All told, he faces 12 charges.
He pleaded not guilty to the eight December charges, including wire fraud and conspiracy to commit campaign finance violations.
Unsealed charges allege that Bankman-Fried, while trying to open a bank account, “falsely represented to a financial institution that the account would be used for trading and market making” when it would actually be used to receive and transmit FTX customer funds.
The charges allege that Bankman-Fried opened a company called North Dimension to provide a “false story” to a bank that had previously declined to open an account for him, according to the filing.
Prosecutors also allege that, along with other conspirators, Bankman-Fried “agreed to and did make corporate contributions to candidates and committees in the Southern District of New York that were reported in the name of another person.”
Bankman-Fried; former co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets Ryan Salame; and FTX’s former director of engineering, Nishad Singh, together made more than $70 million in political donations during the 2022 midterm elections, Bloomberg reported.
Though Salame and Singh were not named in the indictment, prosecutors allege Bankman-Fried and others made more than 300 illegal political donations totaling tens of millions of dollars.
