Yesterday Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas and he is now awaiting extradition to the United States. Today, the charges against him were unsealed and, as you would expect under the circumstances, he is facing a slew of charges from fraud, to money laundering to making illegal campaign donations.

U.S. prosecutors on Tuesday accused Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of crypto currency exchange FTX, of fraud and violating campaign finance laws by misappropriating his customers’ funds, saying the investigation is ongoing and “moving very quickly.”

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams in New York said Bankman-Fried made illegal campaign contributions to Democrats and Republicans with “stolen customer money,” saying it was part of one of the “biggest financial frauds in American history.”

The basic story here is that Bankman-Fried was transferring money out of FTX and into his other company Alameda Research and then using that money as his personal slush fund. The company’s new CEO testified before congress today that what Bankman-Fried did was just old fashioned embezzlement.

John Ray III told members of the House Financial Services Committee that the collapse of FTX, resulting in the loss of more than $7 billion, was the culmination of months, or even years, of bad decisions and poor financial controls.

“This is not something that happened overnight or in a context of a week,” he said.

He added: “This is just plain, old-fashioned embezzlement, taking money from others and using it for your own purposes.”

One of the things Bankman-Fried was doing with all of that money was donating to political campaigns. Count eight of this indictment says he violated the law by donating more than was allowed and also by donating under someone else’s name. Thus far the story about Bankman-Fried has been that he was one of the Democrats top donors, giving nearly $40 million to Democratic candidates.

Most of Bankman-Fried’s publicly disclosed campaign contributions, which totaled nearly $40 million in the 20222 election cycle, went toward Democrats, FEC records show.

But FTX donated $1 million to the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

The source of that contribution, according to the filing, is labeled as being West Realm Shires Services, the trading name for FTX.

That’s true but the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has filed an FEC complaint highlighting an interview Bankman-Fried gave recently in which he admitted to giving about the same amount to Republicans. Here’s the interview which is from two weeks ago. This is cued up to the portion where he claims he donated about equally to both parties:

Here’s the text of his statement:

I donated to both parties. I donated about the same amount to both parties this year. That was not generally known, because despite Citizens United being literally the highest profile Supreme Court case of the decade and the thing everyone talks about when they talk about campaign finance, for some reason, in practice, no one can possibly fathom the idea that someone in practice actually gave dark. So, I don’t know. All my Republican donations were dark….And the reason was not the regulatory reason. It’s because reporters freak the fuck out if you donate to a Republican because they’re all super liberal. And didn’t want to have that fight so I made all the Republican ones dark. But, whatever, the second or third biggest Republican donor this year as well. Also, it’s all for the primary. I didn’t give anything to the general election because I don’t give a shit about the general election. It’s all that matters. Like, it’s the primaries where the good candidates against bad candidates.

Is this true? I don’t know for certain but I’m not sure why he would lie. Giving “dark” money probably isn’t illegal, but stealing from your investors to give away that money is obviously. So by saying this he only seems to make things worse for himself. Plus his explanation for why he did it is interesting.

It’s probably going to be a while until we have a clear picture which donations were illegal simply because the money was stolen from depositors and which ones were illegal for other reasons (such as being donated under someone else’s name).

Finally, while he spent a lot of money on campaign donations, Bankman-Fried apparently spent a lot more on real estate:

Bahamian lawyers say FTX executives Sam Bankman-Fried and Ryan Salame spent $256.3 million to buy and maintain 35 different properties across New Providence, Bahamas…

It is the first true look behind the curtain at FTX’s mammoth real estate spending. Tens of millions were spent just at the small island development that Bankman-Fried called home, with FTX’s holding company buying at least 15 properties and one vacant lot for a combined total of over $143 million.

Two of the largest apartments at that private Albany development came in at an eye-watering $30 million; another was purchased for just over $21.3 million.

Bankman-Fried and Salame also invested tens of millions of dollars into land for their current headquarters building, sinking over $25 million into purchases at the Veridian Corporate Center. In April, FTX broke ground on a new headquarters, which has been on hold since the exchange filed for bankruptcy in November.

It’s going to take a while to unwind all of this and we’re only just getting started. For now, Bankman-Fried is still awaiting extradition in the Bahamas. Today his appeal for bail was rejected:

Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has been denied bail as he fights extradition to the United States in the Bahamas after being charged with one of the ‘biggest financial frauds in American history’…

SBF, 30, protested, telling Chief Magistrate Joyann Ferguson-Pratt he couldn’t go to jail because he is vegan and ‘depressed.’

She however denied him bail, remanding him in custody until February 8. He will spend his detention at Fox Hill, known as The Bahamas’ only prison. The jail is known for overcrowding and unsanitary conditions.

I almost feel sorry for him.