FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried faces 4 new charges
Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried faces four additional criminal charges of conspiracy contained in a superseding indictment unsealed Thursday.
The new charges include conspiracy to commit bank fraud and conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transfer business.
Bankman-Fried, 30, now faces a total of 12 charges since the collapse of FTX.
New information is included about Bankman-Fried's political contribution as part of the filing for one of the new charges -- conspiracy to make unlawful political contributions and defraud the Federal Election Commission.
The filing outlines that from 2020 up to November 2022 -- the most recent midterm elections -- he donated more than $25,000 in a year to candidates "in the names of other persons." He also knowingly donated more than $25,000 in a year by a corporation, which is more than the limit.
Among the other new allegations is a claim that Bankman-Fried deliberately created a fake company called North Dimension, "which had no employees or business operations," solely to open a bank account for trading purposes after an unnamed bank rejected FTX's request to open an account. He even went to the extent of creating a website for the fake company, paid for with Bankman-Fried's credit card, according to prosecutors.
He pleaded not guilty to eight counts of fraud and conspiracy in early January and remains free on a $250 million bond, confined to his parents' house in Palo Alto, California.
No new appearances were immediately scheduled for his arraignment on the additional counts. The new charges expose Bankman-Fried to a possible additional 40 years in prison, if convicted.
Federal prosecutors have alleged Bankman-Fried orchestrated one of the "biggest financial frauds in American history" by steering billions in FTX customer and investor money and funneling it to his privately controlled hedge fund Alameda Research.
The number of victims of the FTX fraud could exceed 1 million, prosectors said at Bankman-Fried's hearing when he pleaded not guilty on Jan. 3.
ABC News' Mark Osborne contributed to this report.
