Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not responsible in New York federal court docket Thursday to 5 extra fees associated to the collapse of his former crypto trade FTX and hedge fund Alameda Research.
The U.S. legal professional’s workplace for the Southern District of New York unveiled its third spherical of felony fees towards the disgraced ex-CEO of FTX in a superseding indictment that was unsealed on Tuesday. This time, the main focus was on Bankman-Fried allegedly bribing a overseas authorities.
Prosecutors allege that Bankman-Fried — who arrived on the courthouse about an hour earlier than the listening to, trying matted after an intense media scrum — directed the cost of no less than $40 million in cryptocurrency to a number of Chinese authorities officers to an try to unfreeze buying and selling accounts tied to his crypto hedge fund, Alameda Research.
Bankman-Fried and his associates thought of and tried “numerous methods” to unfreeze the accounts, which contained round $1 billion price of cryptocurrency, prosecutors allege. Ultimately, after each authorized and private efforts failed, Bankman-Fried agreed to and directed a multimillion-dollar bribe to have the frozen accounts unlocked, prosecutors alleged.
Bankman-Fried’s hedge fund then allegedly used the unfrozen property to proceed to fund Alameda’s loss-generating trades, persevering with on what the federal government says was a fraud upon clients and traders for an additional yr.
The onetime crypto billionaire additionally pled not responsible to fees associated to financial institution fraud, cash laundering, in addition to working an unlicensed cash transmitting business and making illegal political contributions within the U.S. The 13-count indictment provides particulars of a whole bunch of political donations that Bankman-Fried allegedly directed in violation of federal marketing campaign finance legal guidelines. Bankman-Fried already pleaded not responsible to eight different counts.
FTX and Alameda imploded in November 2022 after issues about their steadiness sheet changed into a veritable financial institution run. In addition to this federal indictment, Bankman-Fried additionally faces civil fees from each the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Meanwhile, Bankman-Fried’s collapsed FTX stays mired in Delaware chapter court docket proceedings.
The trial is ready to start in October.
— CNBC’s Dawn Giel contributed to this report.
Source: www.cnbc.com