DOJ Pursues $16 Million in Binance Account Tied to Sam Bankman-Fried Bribery Case

By: Eva Baxter

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has intensified its efforts to reclaim assets involved in illicit cryptocurrency activities, aiming at approximately $16 million held in a Binance account linked to Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX-related fraud. This move follows a civil forfeiture complaint filed by the DOJ and highlights the department's determination to crack down on fraudulent financial activities within the cryptocurrency domain.

The Binance account, established in November 2023, consists of assets including Internet Computer (ICP), Avalanche (AVAX), Ripple (XRP), Cardano (ADA), and Solana (SOL). The DOJ alleges that the account was used to receive and convert daily deposits of Bitcoin and stablecoins into these altcoins. The legal action stems from the broader investigation into the bribery case involving the former CEO of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, and his alleged attempt to pay $40 million to Chinese officials in November 2021. This bribe was reportedly intended to unfreeze Alameda Research's accounts on Chinese exchanges, containing assets worth approximately $1 billion.

According to the DOJ, the funds from these crypto accounts, once unfrozen, were used by Bankman-Fried to facilitate the bribery through various private wallets to obscure the transactions. This illegal transaction forms part of a larger charge where 13 counts were initially presented against Sam Bankman-Fried, including conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Though this count was later separated from the primary trial that concluded with his conviction, it underscores continuing prosecutorial efforts to unravel and remediate the web of criminal activity allegedly orchestrated by Bankman-Fried.

This recent action is a part of larger recovery efforts focused on retrieving more than $3 billion tied to the FTX case. Recent weeks have seen a flurry of legal maneuvers by FTX, including lawsuits against Binance and its head Changpeng Zhao for $1.8 billion, along with claims against other high-profile individuals and entities connected to the exchange. However, opinions on the effectiveness of these efforts remain skeptical, with industry observers noting that actual recoveries might only be a fraction of the claimed amounts.