FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried allegedly used $100 million in funds he stole from his customers to make political campaign contributions ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, federal prosecutors wrote in a superseding indictment on Monday, The Hill reported. The prosecutors allege that Bankman-Fried embezzled customer deposits to, among other accusations, “help fund over a hundred million dollars in campaign contributions to Democrats and Republicans to seek to influence cryptocurrency regulation.” This comes just days after Judge Lewis A. Kaplan revoked Bankman-Fried’s bail and sent him to jail, saying that there was probable cause to suggest he had attempted to “tamper with witnesses at least twice” since his December arrest. He had previously been under house arrest as he awaits trial over allegations that he defrauded his investors and unlawfully diverted millions of dollars’ worth of cryptocurrency from FTX customers. The new charges in the superseding indictment allege that Bankman-Fried also directed two FTX executives to avoid political contribution limits and conceal where the money was coming from.
