Disgraced ex-FTX CEO charged with paying $40 million bribe to China
A new indictment charges FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried with directing $40 million in bribes to one or more Chinese officials to unfreeze assets relating to his cryptocurrency business.
The rewritten indictment unsealed Tuesday adds a charge of conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. It is the 13th charge facing Bankman-Fried as he awaits trial in New York while staying with his parents in Palo Alto, California.
He has already pleaded not guilty to charges that he cheated investors out of billions of dollars before his business collapsed last year. He was arrested in December.
In January, a bankruptcy court voided the $135 million naming-rights agreement Miami-Dade County inked in 2021 with FTX that put the firm’s name on the downtown Miami arena where the Miami Heat play. The building is temporarily being called “the Miami-Dade Arena.”
Last week, the Miami Herald reported the Miami Heat’s brief era playing in the Miami-Dade Arena may be coming to an end before the playoffs as Miami-Dade County tries to land a new naming-rights deal with a global software company with headquarters on Brickell Avenue.
Kaseya is in talks with the administration of Mayor Daniella Levine Cava to finalize a deal for putting its name on the waterfront arena that’s owned by the county and managed by the Heat, Levine Cava’s office confirmed Thursday.
This story was supplemented by Miami Herald reporting.
