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Federal prosecutors tacked on a 13th criminal charge against Sam Bankman-Fried, accusing the FTX co-founder of bribing “one or more” Chinese government officials with $40 million.
The new indictment was unsealed by the Southern District Court of New York on Tuesday.
Bankman-Fried, who is out on a $250 million bond, has already pleaded not guilty to eight criminal counts of fraud and conspiracy, and has not yet been arraigned on five others.
A bail hearing was scheduled for Thursday at 11 a.m. ET.
A spokesman for Bankman-Fried declined to comment.
In the indictment, prosecutors allege that Bankman-Fried sought to pay off Chinese officials in an effort to unfreeze accounts belonging to his hedge fund, Alameda Research. The accounts, which the Chinese governemnt had frozen in a crackdown on cryptocurrencies, held more than $1 billion of digital assets, prosecutors say.
The accounts were released after the payment was transferred in from Alameda’s main trading account to a private cryptocurrency wallet, according to the indictment.
