After Greasing Palms on Both Sides of the Aisle in The US, FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried Now Stands Accused of Bribing the Chinese

FTX's disgraced former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), appears to be quite the connoisseur when it comes to getting his way by greasing palms, a proclivity that is likely to have played an important role in perpetuating the cycle of fraud at FTX and its sister hedge fund, Alameda Research.

To wit, federal prosecutors in Manhattan have unveiled a fresh 13-count indictment against Sam Bankman-Fried, alleging that the disgraced former CEO paid $40 million in bribes via an assortment of cryptocurrencies to the Chinese.

On page 13 of today's indictment, Manhattan prosecutors detail that in early 2021, the Chinese law enforcement authorities froze certain accounts that Alameda Research held on the two largest cryptocurrency exchanges in China. These accounts collectively held around $1 billion in cryptocurrencies. After months of trying to have the accounts unfrozen, Sam Bankman-Fried then authorized $40 million in bribes to key Chinese officials in this saga. The payments were made in various cryptocurrencies that were withdrawn from Alameda's main wallet.

Of course, this is just the latest in what appears to be the modus operandi of Sam Bankman-Fried: when in doubt, bribe.

As we detailed in a previous post, the US Federal Election Commission (FEC) has already charged Sam Bankman-Fried with the conspiracy to make unlawful political contributions and defraud the Commission. Specifically, SBF allegedly used straw donors to evade contribution limits. The pertinent indictment alleges that Sam Bankman-Fried made over 300 illegal political contributions worth over $10 million.

Unusual Whales has compiled an exhaustive list of legislators who benefitted from Sam Bankman-Fried's financial largesse. As is evident from the tweet above, both Republicans and Democrats have received such contributions from SBF.

For those who might be unaware, the crypto exchange FTX maintained an undisclosed symbiotic relationship with Sam Bankman-Fried's crypto trading arm, Alameda Research, replete with commingled funds at the Silvergate bank, which allowed Alameda the convenience of borrowing FTX client funds after posting collateral in the form of illiquid tokens, including FTX's in-house FTT coin. This gig ended when Alameda's outsized exposure to the FTT token became public knowledge in early November, prompting Binance to dump its own FTT holdings, collapsing the token's price. Amid this fracas, the then-CEO of Alameda Research, Caroline Ellison, gave away the trading firm's floor price on the FTT token, inviting a veritable onslaught of speculative attacks. With Alameda's ability to pay off its liabilities impaired as its collateral of illiquid tokens quickly lost their inflated values, and with surging client withdrawals resulting in a bank run, FTX had no choice, in the end, to declare bankruptcy.

About the author: Writing is my one incontrovertible passion. Over the past six years, he has authored over 2,200 distinct articles on financial and tech-related topics, spanning nearly 1 million words. And he has been a member of Wcctech mobile team since 2025. As an alumnus of the University of Toronto, Rotman Commerce Program, I bring nuance, in-depth knowledge, and a unique perspective to every topic that I cover. When I'm not writing, I'm traveling the world, exploring hidden confectionaries and restaurants as an aspiring food connoisseur.

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