According to ZachXBT, the former CEO of beleaguered crypto exchange FTX hid a $40 million transfer he allegedly used to “bribe Chinese authorities” from his public revelations.
Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyers appeared in a federal appeals court in New York on Tuesday to appeal the ex-FTX head’s 2023 conviction on seven criminal charges, including fraud and conspiracy tied to the collapse of his crypto empire.
Attorney Alexandra Shapiro, representing the 33-year-old former crypto executive, argued before a three-judge panel at the 2nd Circuit US Court of Appeals that Bankman-Fried’s trial was “fundamentally unfair.” Shapiro claimed that presiding judge Lewis Kaplan, “repeatedly put a thumb on the scale to help the government and thwart the defense.”
Late Thursday, the handler of Bankman-Fried’s official X account published a statement quoting the disgraced crypto founder’s response to paraphrased comments made by FTX’s current CEO, John J. Ray III.
“I’m not saying FTX’s solvency or the Debtors’ mismanagement are the reasons I’m innocent (although it’s a piece of the story!). But the Debtors are still withholding funds—see, e.g., Mr. Ji’s fight for Chinese creditors, and this needs more attention,” Bankman-Fried was quoted saying.
Responding to the ex-FTX head’s commentary, blockchain security sleuth ZachXBT replied: “Riddle me about the $40M transfer to Chinese authorities you hid from the public?” He attached an X post from 2023 that linked one of FTX’s wallets to a $40 million transaction purportedly used to bribe Chinese officials.
ZachXBT queries SBF on $40 million bribe allegations
The 2D investigator’s post referenced findings of crypto trader and on-chain analyst DefiSquared, who said he had traced suspicious transfers involving FTX-linked wallets.
“Was looking into the Multichain exploiter address tonight and following the money trail,” he wrote in August 2023. “Where did it lead me? To the $40 million bribe that SBF is accused of bribing the Chinese government with.”
Defisquared’s X thread noted that the tagged Multichain exploiter address, 0x622e5, had sent over 1,000 WBTC to a new wallet, 0x3c74b, which later converted the funds to USDT through Gate.io.
The wallet reportedly used deposit address 0x96345 to launder the funds, receiving inflows from several addresses including 0x24f42, which in November 2021 had received a $40 million USDT transfer from FTX.
“Weird transaction, right? Well, not when you remember that SBF is currently being accused of bribing the Chinese Government exactly $40 million ‘in or around November 2021.’”
During Bankman-Fried’s 2023 trial, US federal prosecutors alleged that the FTX founder and his associates arranged the multimillion-dollar payment to unfreeze accounts belonging to Alameda Research on Chinese exchanges. The accounts reportedly contained around $1 billion worth of crypto that had been locked as a result of an ongoing investigation in China.
According to the indictment, Bankman-Fried and his team “considered and tried numerous methods to unfreeze the accounts,” including legal appeals and personal outreach. When those efforts failed, he “agreed to and directed a multimillion-dollar bribe” to Chinese officials to regain access to the funds.
Prosecutors accused Bankman-Fried of siphoning billions of dollars in customer funds from FTX to prop up Alameda Research. A Manhattan jury found him guilty after less than five hours of deliberation, which made defense lawyers adamant that the decision was hurried. Despite testifying in his own defense, Bankman-Fried was convicted on all seven counts.
SBF attorneys ask for a second chance in appeals court
Bankman-Fried’s lawyers insist the trial’s atmosphere and Kaplan’s conduct deprived him of due process. They contend that prosecutors presented oversimplified evidence that unfairly made their client appear “intentionally deceitful.”
Shapiro, his lead attorney, said in court that the government’s case “relied heavily on emotion rather than evidence,” propounding that Bankman-Fried’s decisions were “the product of chaos, not corruption.”
According to the appeal brief, Bankman-Fried’s team is asking for a new trial before a different judge because Kaplan’s conduct during proceedings prejudiced the jury. The defense cited instances where Kaplan “ridiculed Bankman-Fried and referred to the former FTX executive’s claim that he no longer ran Alameda Research after stepping down as CEO as “a joke.”
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