NEW YORK — U.S. prosecutors charged Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, with a host of financial crimes and campaign finance violations on Tuesday, alleging he played a central role in the rapid collapse of FTX and hid its problems from the public and investors.
The indictment says Bankman-Fried allegedly committed a yearslong fraud by diverting investors’ funds to his private hedge fund and using the money to make venture investments, lavish real estate purchases and large political donations.
