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      4th FTX exec pleads guilty, agrees to forfeit Porsche and other property

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Friday, 8 September, 2023 - 18:20

    Wearing a suit and sunglasses, former FTX executive Ryan Salame walks out of a courthouse.

    Enlarge / Ryan Salame, former co-chief executive officer of FTX Digital Markets Ltd., exits federal court in New York on Thursday, Sept. 7, 2023. (credit: Getty Images | Bloomberg)

    Former FTX executive Ryan Salame pleaded guilty to two criminal charges yesterday, becoming the fourth former associate of Sam Bankman-Fried to enter guilty pleas.

    A money judgment of $1.56 billion was entered against Salame, but he will be allowed to satisfy the judgment by making a $6 million payment to the US and forfeiting two properties, a business, and a Porsche. He also agreed to provide $5.6 million in restitution to FTX debtors.

    Salame faces maximum imprisonment of 10 years, consisting of five years for each charge. Salame was released on a $1 million bond and has sentencing scheduled for March 6, 2024. Meanwhile, Bankman-Fried's trial is scheduled to begin in early October.

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      SBF says “dishonesty and unfair dealing” aren’t fraud, seeks to dismiss charges

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Tuesday, 9 May, 2023 - 19:52 · 1 minute

    SBF says “dishonesty and unfair dealing” aren’t fraud, seeks to dismiss charges

    Enlarge (credit: Drew Angerer / Staff | Getty Images North America )

    Late Monday, legally embroiled FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried moved to dismiss the majority of criminal charges lobbed against him by the United States government after his cryptocurrency exchange went bankrupt in 2022.

    In documents filed in a Manhattan federal court, the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell shared Bankman-Fried's first official legal defense. Lawyers accused the US of a "troubling" and "classic rush to judgment," claiming that the government didn't even wait to receive "millions of documents" and "other evidence" against Bankman-Fried before "improperly seeking" to turn "civil and regulatory issues into federal crimes."

    After FTX's collapse last year, federal prosecutors acted quickly to intervene, within a month alleging that Bankman-Fried was stealing billions in customer funds , defrauding investors, committing bank and wire fraud, providing improper loans, misleading lenders, transmitting money without a license, making illegal campaign contributions, bribing China officials , and other crimes. Through it all, Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty. Now, in his motion to dismiss, Bankman-Fried has requested an oral argument to "fight these baseless charges" and "clear his name." He's asking the court to dismiss 10 out of 13 charges, arguing that federal prosecutors have failed to substantiate most of their claims.

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      SBF paid $40M bribe to unfreeze crypto trading accounts in China, US charges

      news.movim.eu / ArsTechnica · Tuesday, 28 March, 2023 - 18:56

    Then-FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried speaks during a Congressional hearing.

    Enlarge / Then-CEO of FTX Sam Bankman-Fried speaks during a House Committee on Financial Services hearing on December 8, 2021, in Washington, DC. (credit: Getty Images | The Washington Post)

    FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is facing a new criminal charge, with an updated indictment alleging that he violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act when he "authorized and directed a bribe of at least $40 million to one or more Chinese government officials."

    The superseding indictment returned by a federal grand jury in New York yesterday, and unsealed today, said the bribe's purpose "was to influence and induce one or more Chinese government officials to unfreeze certain Alameda trading accounts containing over $1 billion in cryptocurrency, which had been frozen by Chinese authorities." Including the new charge, Bankman-Fried now faces 13 criminal counts.

    In early 2021, Chinese law enforcement officials froze certain Alameda accounts on two of China's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, the indictment said. Bankman-Fried "understood that the Accounts had been frozen by Chinese authorities as part of an ongoing investigation of a particular Alameda trading counterparty."

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