At a news conference, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams confirmed that he had authorized the charges last Wednesday, and this led to a grand jury indictment last Friday.
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U.S. prosecutors have defended the timing of Sam Bankman-Fried's arrest, amid criticism that it stopped FTX's founder from testifying before Congress.
At a news conference, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams confirmed that he had authorized the charges last Wednesday, and this led to a grand jury indictment last Friday.
All of this meant that the wheels were in motion before SBF had actually confirmed that he would appear before the House Financial Services Committee. Williams said:
"The timing was dictated by law enforcement as opposed to any other considerations such as his testimony to Congress."
Williams characterized the eight criminal charges against Bankman-Fried in four categories: that he allegedly defrauded FTX customers, defrauded the exchange's investors, defrauded Alameda Research's lenders and violated campaign finance laws.
He told reporters that illegal campaign contributions worth millions of dollars was made to Democrats and Republicans alike.
"All this dirty money was used in his desire to buy bipartisan influence and influence direction of public policy in Washington."
He urged all political campaigns that have received "stolen customer money" to return it so it can be given to FTX's "innocent victims."
Meanwhile, the FBI's assistant director in charge, Michael Driscoll, alleged that SBF "knowingly defrauded customers of FTX through the misappropriation of customer deposits."
"He preyed on his customers, the victims of this case, abusing the trust placed not only in his company but in himself as the lead of that company. We're determined to help the victims of this case get a sense of justice and we'll continue to make every effort to recover as much of their funds as possible."
Representatives from the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, also gave remarks related to the civil enforcement action that they've brought against Sam Bankman-Fried.
Williams confirmed that the Southern District of New York — alongside the FBI, SEC and CFTC — have been working "around the clock" to determine what happened.
And while this news conference was focused on Bankman-Fried, the U.S. attorney strongly suggested that charges against other individuals may follow, telling reporters: "We're not done."
