Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have hit SBF with a new 13-count indictment accusing him of conspiring to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act with the aforementioned actions, which are illegal under United States law.
Prosecutors have asked U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan to arrange a court hearing for the purpose of arraigning SBF on these new charges. A letter to the judge reads as follows:
"The S5 Indictment, which was unsealed this morning, includes the twelve counts contained in the S3 Superseding Indictment, as well an additional count for conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ('FCPA'), in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371."
(Related: SBF also bribed media outlets like The New York Times to write propaganda puff pieces in support of him and his fraudulent businesses.)
SBF also funneled a "multi-million dollar gift" to his father, Joseph Bankman, to help pay his legal costs
Prior to all this, the 31-year-old career criminal pleaded guilty to eight counts related to the implosion of FTX. This occurred after prosecutors accused SBF of stealing billions of dollars in customer assets in a failed attempt to stop Alameda Research, his crypto hedge fund, from collapsing.
SBF was also caught funneling a "multi-million dollar gift" to his father, Joseph Bankman, that is supposedly being used to cover his legal costs. The money for this gift came from none other than Alameda Research.
Before being caught in all these criminal acts, SBF was reportedly worth about $26 billion. In 2021, he "borrowed" money from Alameda Research to pay his father this gift money.
Court filings reveal that SBF founded Alameda Research in 2017, and was its CEO up until October 2021. During that time, his father Joseph allegedly "begged his son to put away savings," but supposedly SBF rejected that advice.
Both Joseph Bankman and his wife Barbara Fried have faculty bios listed on the Stanford Law School website, though there are no courses currently listed for either of them – are they just laying low for the time being in the hopes that this all blows over?
As for their son, federal prosecutors alleged that SBF used "billions of dollars" in company funds to "enrich himself," among other crimes. SBF previously pleaded "not guilty" to prosecutors' original indictment. Other senior executives at his enterprises, including FTX co-founder Gary Wang and former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison, have reportedly entered into plea agreements.
Judge Kaplan added new bail restrictions this week that restrict SBF from using a virtual private network (VPN) on his computer, phone, and other devices. He is also prohibited from using encrypted texting apps like Signal, as well as from talking to most "current or former employees of FTX or Alameda" without lawyers present.
"Why are he and his parents not in jail?" asked one commenter on a story about these latest developments.
"Bankman-Fried: God always has a sense of humor we like to call irony," wrote another about how the guy's very name is laughably applicable to his crimes.
"But ... he still gets to stay at home in his room and play video games (and hack into bank accounts to free up cash to wire to the Caymans) right?," asked another about what SBF could be doing in his unsupervised time, seeing as how he is still roaming free.
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