Bankman-Fried Prosecutors Allege Plot to Shape Crypto Policy
- FTX founder used straw donors to ‘curry favor’ in DC, they say
- Beefed-up indictment adds charges, cites new co-conspirators
A fresh indictment of FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried features a pair of co-conspirators the US says helped illegally seek to influence the regulation of cryptocurrency by donating millions of dollars to Democrats and Republicans alike.
Bankman-Fried is accused of a massive fraud that led to last year’s implosion of the crypto exchange. The new charges, unsealed on Thursday in federal court in Manhattan, refer to two people the government says participated in the alleged campaign finance scheme. The campaign cash from him and other top FTX executives, which prosecutors say “involved flooding the political system with tens of millions of dollars in illegal contributions,” has the potential to be the biggest infusion of illegal money into US politics in decades.