U.S. charges FTX's Bankman-Fried with paying $40 million bribe
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U.S. prosecutors on Tuesday unveiled a new indictment against Sam Bankman-Fried, accusing the founder of the now-bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange of paying a $40 million bribe to Chinese officials so they would unfreeze his hedge fund's accounts.
This adds to the previous 13-count indictment that had accused Bankman-Fried of stealing billions of dollars in customer funds and orchestrating an illegal donation scheme.
Bankman-Fried, who has pleaded not guilty to eight of the charges, is set to be arraigned in court on Thursday.
The case comes as part of a wider crackdown on alleged abuses at digital asset exchanges by US regulators and prosecutors following last year's drop in cryptocurrency values.