Sam Bankman-Fried accused of Chinese bribe

Sam Bankman-Fried, head of failed crypto firm FTX, has been accused of bribing at least one Chinese official.

In new charges unveiled in the US, officials accuse the entrepreneur of authorising a bribe of "at least $40m" (£32.5m) to try to gain access to trading accounts frozen by Chinese authorities.

The allegations add to the fraud case that US authorities unveiled last year after the collapse of FTX.

Mr Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty.

He is currently under house arrest at his parents' home in California while awaiting trial.

The updated indictment says Mr Bankman-Fried authorised the bribe after Chinese authorities froze accounts holding roughly $1bn (£811m) worth of cryptocurrency that belonged to his trading firm, Alameda.

The accounts were released after the transfer, which went to a private cryptocurrency wallet, according to the filing.