Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty in federal court in New York on Tuesday to eight counts related to the collapse of his former crypto exchange FTX and hedge fund Alameda Research.
The former crypto billionaire was charged For charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and securities fraud, individual charges of securities fraud and wire fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to circumvent corporate finance regulations campaigns.
Judge Lewis Kaplan has proposed Oct. 2 as the start date for Bankman-Fried’s trial.
Bankman-Fried arrived outside the courthouse in a black SUV and was swarmed by cameras as soon as his vehicle arrived. The melee grew so thick that Bankman-Fried’s mother couldn’t get out of the vehicle, falling onto the wet sidewalk as cameras scrambled to catch a glimpse of her son.
Bankman-Fried was carried by security through the crowd and into the courthouse within moments, with photographers scrambling to get out of the way.
Earlier in the day, Bankman-Fried’s attorneys filed a motion to seal the names of two people who had secured Bankman-Fried’s release on bail with a bond. They claimed that the visibility of the case and the defendant had already put Bankman-Fried’s parents at risk and that guarantors should not be subjected to the same scrutiny. Kaplan approved the motion in court.
Federal prosecutor Danielle Sassoon told the court that Bankman-Fried worked with foreign regulators to transfer assets that FTX’s U.S. management tried to recover through the Chapter 11 bankruptcy process.
Bahamian regulators and US attorneys for FTX have been fighting for weeks in Delaware bankruptcy court over hundreds of millions, if not billions, of cryptocurrency dollars. FTX lawyers insist Bahamian regulators illegally transferred hundreds of millions of dollars and that Bankman-Fried aided them.
Bahamian regulators say local laws give them jurisdiction over those assets and dispute the validity of the U.S. Chapter 11 proceeding.
Federal prosecutors appear to agree with US attorneys for FTX. Sassoon asked Kaplan to impose a new restriction prohibiting Bankman-Fried from transferring or accessing FTX client assets. The judge also approved this request.
Bankman Fried returned to the United States Bahamas in December. 21, and the next day was released on $250 million bail, secured by his family home in California.
Federal prosecutors also announced the launch of a new task force to recover victims’ assets as part of an ongoing investigation into Bankman-Fried and the collapse of FTX.
“The Southern District of New York is working around the clock to respond to the FTX implosion,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement Tuesday.
The SDNY U.S. Attorney’s Office argued that Bankman-Fried used it $8 billion in client assets to extravagant real estate purchases and vanity projectsincluding stadium naming rights and Millions of political donations.
Federal prosecutors filed the indictment against Bankman-Fried with unusual speed, consolidating the criminal charges against the 30-something within weeks. The federal charges were accompanied by complaints from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
They were assisted by two of Bankman-Fried’s closest allies, Caroline Ellison, former CEO of his hedge fund Alameda Research, and Gary Wang, who co-founded FTX with Bankman-Fried.
Ellison, 28, and Wang, 29, pleaded guilty on December 2. 21. Their plea deals with prosecutors came after rampant speculation that Ellison, Bankman-Fried’s former romantic partner, was cooperating with federal investigations.
Another former FTX executive, Ryan Salame, apparently first regulators alerted to alleged wrongdoing inside FTX. Salame, a former co-CEO of FTX, reported “possible mismanagement of client assets” to Bahamian regulators two days before the crypto exchange filed for bankruptcy, according to a Securities Commission filing. of the Bahamas.
Bankman-Fried has been accused by federal law enforcement and financial regulators of carrying out what the SEC called one of the largest and most “brazen” frauds in recent memory. His meteoric fall was precipitated by reports which raised questions about the nature of his hedge fund balance sheet.
In the weeks following FTX’s Nov. On Delaware’s 11th declaration of bankruptcy, the extent of Bankman-Fried’s alleged malfeasance was revealed. Replacement CEO John J. Ray said there was a “complete failure of corporate control.“
Bankman-Fried was charged in federal court in New York on December 2. 9, and was stopped by Bahamian law enforcement at the request of U.S. prosecutors on December 11, 2019. 12. Following his indictment, Bankman-Fried’s Bahamian legal team seesaw whether or not their client consents to extradition.
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