After more than a year of investigation, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently filed a civil forfeiture lawsuit and applied to seize the assets involved in the "SBF Bribery of Chinese Officials Case." This cryptocurrency, worth US$16 million, is currently stored in a currency in your Binance account.
SBF bribery case
According to court documents dated November 12, the Binance account contained multiple cryptocurrencies, including ICP, AVAX, XRP, ADA, and SOL. The account allegedly received almost daily deposits of stablecoins and Bitcoins, which were then quickly exchanged for other assets.
The U.S. Department of Justice pointed out that in November 2021, FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) "agreed and directed" his subordinates to pay US$40 million in bribes to Chinese officials in an attempt to unfreeze Alameda Research's holdings on two Chinese exchanges. Frozen trading account.
The accounts held approximately $1 billion in cryptocurrency at the time. After the account was successfully unfrozen, SBF ordered "tens of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency" to be paid to one or more Chinese government officials to complete the transaction, the documents said. The funds were then laundered through multiple private wallets to conceal the source and purpose of the funds. . Eventually, investigators successfully traced the funds to the Binance account involved.
The bribery charge was originally one of the SBF's 13 counts involving conspiracy to violate the (Foreign Corrupt Practices Act), but it was later severed from the main trial proceedings and dealt with separately.
The “path to recovery” for more than $3 billion
The U.S. Department of Justice’s operation is another effort to recover criminal assets related to FTX. As of now, assets totaling more than $3 billion are still being recovered.
In recent weeks, FTX has launched multiple lawsuits to speed up the fund recovery process, including claiming $1.8 billion against Binance and its founder Changpeng Zhao, and $90 million against Waves founder Aleksandr Ivanov.
FTX also filed a lawsuit against SBF-backed gaming company Storybook Brawl and launched legal proceedings against “crypto whale” Nawaaz Mohammad Meerun (nicknamed Humpy the Whale), accusing him of manipulating the market and causing losses of more than $1 billion.
In addition, FTX is also actively pursuing payments related to political donations, including former White House official Anthony Scaramucci and well-known marketing expert Neil Patel.
The total amount claimed in this series of lawsuits exceeds US$3 billion, but FTX creditor representative "Mr. Purple" expressed doubts about whether the assets can be recovered in full. He pointed out that FTX has often recovered only 10% to 20% of the claimed amount in the past, and it would be a surprise if it could recover US$500 million this time.
"Involving the "SBF bribery of Chinese officials case"! The US authorities locked "a Binance account" and wanted to seize US$16 million. This article was first published on (Block Guest).
