Bankman-Fried, 31, entered the plea to the brand new, 13-count indictment by means of his lawyer, Mark Cohen, at a listening to earlier than U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan federal courtroom.
He had earlier pleaded not responsible to eight counts of fraud and conspiracy for allegedly stealing billions in FTX buyer funds to plug losses at his hedge fund, Alameda Research.
Cohen stated he was planning to problem the brand new fees as a result of they have been introduced after Bankman-Fried was extradited from the Bahamas, the place he was arrested in December and the place FTX was based mostly.
The new fees add to the strain on Bankman-Fried, who faces a attainable sentence of a long time in jail if convicted at a trial set to begin on Oct. 2.
Bankman-Fried’s arrest got here after a flurry of buyer withdrawals spurred by considerations about commingling of funds between the change and Alameda prompted the collapse of now-bankrupt FTX.
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The preliminary indictment by the U.S. Attorney’s workplace in Manhattan contained few particulars concerning the alleged scheme. In an uncommon post-arrest weblog submit, the previous billionaire acknowledged insufficient danger administration at FTX, however stated he didn’t steal funds. Prosecutors in late February filed a brand new 12-count indictment elaborating on the fraud fees and accusing Bankman-Fried of illicitly contributing tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} to U.S. political campaigns by means of straw donors, a part of a method to purchase affect in Washington.
And on Tuesday, prosecutors moved to unseal one more indictment, which accused Bankman-Fried of conspiring to violate an anti-bribery regulation by orchestrating a $40 million fee to Chinese authorities to regain entry to $1 billion in cryptocurrency in Alameda accounts that had been frozen.
Three former members of Bankman-Fried’s interior circle – former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison, former FTX know-how chief Zixao “Gary” Wang, and former FTX engineering director Nishad Singh – have all pleaded responsible and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.
Bankman-Fried is confined to his dad and mom’ Palo Alto, California, residence on $250 million bond pending trial. Earlier this week, Kaplan accepted modifications to Bankman-Fried’s bail bundle which might be designed to forestall the defendant from tampering with witnesses.
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com