SBF paid $40M bribe to Chinese officials to unlock frozen accounts: feds

Embattled crypto guru Sam Bankman-Fried paid a $40 million bribe to at least one Chinese government official to get access to accounts that had been frozen by Beijing, federal prosecutors alleged Tuesday. 

Details of the 2021 bribe were included in a new indictment against Bankman-Fried — the former head of cryptocurrency exchange FTX and hedge fund Alameda Research — filed by federal prosecutors in Manhattan. 

The feds allege the shaggy-haired accused fraudster sought to unlock $1 billion in cryptocurrency in accounts that had been seized by the authoritarian state. 

“Samuel Bankman-Fried aka ‘SBF’ authorized and directed a bribe of at least $40 million to one or more Chinese government officials,” the indictment states. 

“The purpose of the bribe was to influence and induce one or more Chinese government officials to unfreeze certain Alameda trading accounts containing over $1 billion in cryptocurrency, which had been frozen by Chinese authorities,” it adds. 

The bribe was successful and Bankman-Fried and his cohort gained access to the accounts, a spokesperson for the US Attorney’s Office said. 

Bankman-Fried, 31, faces an additional 13th count for the bribe, conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. 

He was arrested in December and hit with a slew of charges for allegedly defrauding investors and customers of his two cryptocurrency companies and for commingling funds between the two entities. 

Bankman-Fried faces decades in prison if convicted on all counts.