U.S government plans to confiscate $16 million in Binance

The FG stated that Sam Bankman-Fried approved a $40 million USDT payment from Alameda Research to bribe Chinese officials in 2021. The Department of Justice (DOJ) filed a civil forfeiture complaint to confiscate crypto assets valued at approximately $16 million from a Binance account.

This is the outcome of a multi-year investigation into suspected criminal activity related to purported bribery schemes involving Sam Bankman-Fried, also known as SBF, the founder of FTX.

The DOJ’s case stems from November 2021, when Bankman-Fried allegedly approved a $40 million Tether (USDT) payment using wallets owned by Alameda Research, FTX’s sister company.

The DOJ  that SBF intended the payments as a bribe to anonymous Chinese officials to enable the release of $1 billion in Alameda cryptocurrency had been blocked on two Chinese digital asset exchanges.

Additionally,  the funds were transferred through private wallets before arriving at the crypto exchange address that the Justice Department is investigating.

Authorities discovered almost daily deposits of Bitcoin and stablecoins, which were swiftly exchanged for other cryptocurrencies through over-the-counter transactions, leading them to flag the wallet for suspicious activity.

The DOJ claimed that after receiving the bribe, the Chinese authorities unfrozen the Alameda funds, and SBF reportedly approved further payments totaling tens of millions of dollars.

According to Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda who testified against SBF in 2023, the alleged bribe totaled over $100 million. Bankman-Fried was convicted by a New York grand jury on several counts of fraud and conspiracy charges connected to the demise of FTX and is presently serving a 25-year sentence.