Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has been charged with bribing Chinese officials with payments of $40m (£32.4m).
Prosecutors have accused him of directing the payment to unfreeze accounts belonging to his hedge fund.
The accounts of his trading firm Alameda Research, which Chinese authorities had frozen, are said to have held more than $1bn (£812m) in cryptocurrency.
Prosecutors claimed they were unfrozen after the alleged bribe payment was made around November 2021.
Bankman-Fried is accused of transferring tens of millions of dollars worth of extra crypto to complete the bribe.
The 31-year-old has already pleaded not guilty to eight counts over the collapse of FTX last year.
