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By Luc Cohen and Jonathan Stempel

NEW YORK (Reuters) -U.S. prosecutors on Tuesday unveiled a new indictment against Sam Bankman-Fried, accusing the founder of now-bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange of conspiring to bribe Chinese government officials with $40 million worth of payments.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged Bankman-Fried with directing the payment in order to unfreeze accounts belonging to his hedge fund, Alameda Research, that Chinese authorities had frozen. The accounts held more than $1 billion of cryptocurrency, U.S. prosecutors said.

The accounts were unfrozen after the bribe payment was transferred around November 2021 from Alameda's main trading account to a private cryptocurrency wallet, according to the new indictment.

After the accounts were unfrozen, Bankman-Fried authorized a transfer of tens of millions of dollars of additional cryptocurrency to complete the bribe, prosecutors said.

The new charge increases the pressure on the 31-year-old former billionaire, who had previously pleaded not guilty to eight counts over the collapse of FTX. Prosecutors say Bankman-Fried stole billions of dollars in customer funds to plug losses Alameda.

Lawyers for Bankman-Fried did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Bankman-Fried has acknowledged inadequate risk management at FTX, but has denied stealing money.

China's foreign ministry could not immediately be reached after normal business hours in Beijing.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan scheduled a court hearing for Thursday after prosecutors asked for Bankman-Fried to be arraigned on the new, 13-count indictment.

Prosecutors last month unveiled four new counts against Bankman-Fried, accusing him of orchestrating an illegal campaign donation scheme to buy influence in Washington, D.C. He has not yet been arraigned on the new charges.

The new count accuses Bankman-Fried of conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), which makes it illegal for U.S. citizens to bribe foreign government officials to win business.

Story continues

Bankman-Fried is currently confined to his parents' Palo Alto, California home on $250 million bond ahead of his Oct. 2 trial.

On Monday, his lawyers and prosecutors reached a new agreement on revised bail conditions, after Kaplan raised the prospect of sending Bankman-Fried to jail pending trial. That came after prosecutors raised concerns he may have been tampering with witnesses.

(Reporting by Luc Cohen and Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Jonathan Oatis, Nick Zieminski and Noeleen Walder)

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FTX's Bankman-Fried charged with bribery conspiracy in new indictment - Yahoo Finance

NEW YORK, March 28 (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors on Tuesday unveiled a new indictment against Sam Bankman-Fried, accusing the founder of now-bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange of conspiring to bribe Chinese government officials with $40 million worth of payments.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged Bankman-Fried with directing the payment in order to unfreeze accounts belonging to his hedge fund, Alameda Research, that Chinese authorities had frozen. The accounts held more than $1 billion of cryptocurrency, U.S. prosecutors said.

The accounts were unfrozen after the bribe payment was transferred around November 2021 from Alameda's main trading account to a private cryptocurrency wallet, according to the new indictment.

After the accounts were unfrozen, Bankman-Fried authorized a transfer of tens of millions of dollars of additional cryptocurrency to complete the bribe, prosecutors said.

The new charge increases the pressure on the 31-year-old former billionaire, who had previously pleaded not guilty to eight counts over the collapse of FTX. Prosecutors say Bankman-Fried stole billions of dollars in customer funds to plug losses Alameda.

Lawyers for Bankman-Fried did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Bankman-Fried has acknowledged inadequate risk management at FTX, but has denied stealing money.

China's foreign ministry could not immediately be reached after normal business hours in Beijing.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan scheduled a court hearing for Thursday after prosecutors asked for Bankman-Fried to be arraigned on the new, 13-count indictment.

Prosecutors last month unveiled four new counts against Bankman-Fried, accusing him of orchestrating an illegal campaign donation scheme to buy influence in Washington, D.C. He has not yet been arraigned on the new charges.

The new count accuses Bankman-Fried of conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), which makes it illegal for U.S. citizens to bribe foreign government officials to win business.

Bankman-Fried is currently confined to his parents' Palo Alto, California home on $250 million bond ahead of his Oct. 2 trial.

On Monday, his lawyers and prosecutors reached a new agreement on revised bail conditions, after Kaplan raised the prospect of sending Bankman-Fried to jail pending trial. That came after prosecutors raised concerns he may have been tampering with witnesses.

Reporting by Luc Cohen and Jonathan Stempel in New York; editing by Jonathan Oatis, Nick Zieminski and Noeleen Walder

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Thomson Reuters

Reports on the New York federal courts. Previously worked as a correspondent in Venezuela and Argentina.

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FTX's Bankman-Fried charged with bribing Chinese officials in new indictment - Reuters.com

The Niagara Falls City Council has formally advanced the first completed application for a high-energy use industry operating permit in the city.

On a 5-0 vote Wednesday night, the council sent the application of BlockFusion, a cryptocurrency mining operator, to the Falls Planning Board and the Falls Zoning Board of Appeals for review and consideration. The boards will make recommendations regarding the application and send those back to the City Council for a final determination.

If the council approves the BlockFusion application, it will mark the first high-energy use industry operating permit to be granted under the citys revised zoning code which places new restrictions on those industries, which also include data centers and cannabis cultivation.

BlockFusion ceased operating its facility, on Frontier Avenue, in November after the city notified the company that it was in violation of the new high-energy use industry zoning code amendments. The city also sought a preliminary injunction to block continued mining at two other cryptocurrency mining facilities in the Falls.

While U.S. Bitcoin, which operates a cryptomine on Buffalo Avenue, continued its operations without a permit, BlockFusion immediately filed an application for an operating permit and made changes to comply with the new zoning code requirements. In December, the city asked for some supplemental changes to BlockFusions application and the company said it promptly complied with that request.

An attorney for BlockFusion, William Rossi, has repeatedly said his client wants to do business in the Falls.

Its important to them to do this right, Rossi said. I would be willing to cooperate in anyway possible.

Mayor Robert Restaino has said previously that because of the Bitcoin litigation and because BlockFusion is the first operating permit applicant under the new zoning code regulations, the city has moved very cautiously through the permitting process.

Everybody is kind of watching this, Restaino said. Were wanting to make sure BlockFusion gets across the finish line because it shows our (new) statute works.

U.S. Bitcoin is continuing to operate its facility under a contempt of court order and has racked up fines of over $1 million. However, settlement talks are reportedly underway between the city and U.S. Bitcoin.

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Council advances operating permit application from cryptocurrency mining company - Niagara Gazette

PRESS RELEASE

Published March 27, 2023

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About OneKey

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2. MISSION & VALUES: Be the BEST choice for any individual and business to keep crypto assets, providing decentralized banking services.

3. 2022.11 - Series A round of funding at a valuation of $65 million, led by Dragonfly Ventures and Ribbit Capital.

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5. OneKey is the wallet that offers the most supported platforms and comprehensive set of features in the market.

Media ContactCompany Name: OneKey LimitedContact Person: Media RelationsEmail: Send EmailAddress:Primoknit Industrial Building City: Kwai ChungState: NtCountry: HongKongWebsite: https://onekey.so

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Coinbase-backed OneKey Cryptocurrency Hardware Wallet: A New ... - Digital Journal

Former FTX Chief Executive Sam Bankman-Fried, who faces fraud charges over the collapse of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange, arrives on the day of a hearing at Manhattan federal court in New York City, January 3, 2023.

David Dee Delgado | Reuters

FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried paid out tens of millions of dollars worth of bribes to at least one Chinese government official, federal prosecutors alleged in a new indictment Tuesday.

The federal government alleges that accounts belonging to Bankman-Fried's hedge fund, Alameda Research, were the target of a freezing order from Chinese police "in or around" Nov. 2021. The indictment also alleges that Bankman-Fried and others "directed and caused the transfer" of at least $40 million in cryptocurrency "intended for the benefit of one or more Chinese government officials in order to influence and induce them" to unfreeze some of these accounts.

Bankman-Fried and his associates considered and tried "numerous methods" to unfreeze the accounts, which contained around $1 billion worth of cryptocurrency, prosecutors allege. Ultimately, after both legal and personal efforts failed, Bankman-Fried agreed and directed a multi-million dollar bribe to unlock the frozen accounts, prosecutors allege.

Bankman-Fried's hedge fund used the unfrozen assets to continue to fund Alameda's loss-generating trades, continuing on what the government says was a fraud upon customers and investors for another year. FTX and Alameda imploded in Nov. 2022 after concerns about their balance sheet turned into a veritable bank run. Bankman-Fried now faces a federal indictment and civil charges from both the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

The charges indicate that new evidence has been obtained by the federal government about Bankman-Fried's international dealings, and it comes one day after U.S. regulators slapped crypto exchange Binance with allegations of facilitating terrorist financing and violations of U.S. derivatives law.

Meanwhile, Bankman-Fried's collapsed FTX remains mired in Delaware bankruptcy court proceedings.

CNBC reached out to a spokesperson for Bankman-Fried but did not immediately hear back.

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Sam Bankman-Fried paid over $40 million to bribe at least one Chinese official, DOJ alleges in new indictment - CNBC