Sam Bankman-Fried, the founding father of bankrupt cryptocurrency alternate FTX, on Tuesday pleaded not responsible to prices that he defrauded clients out of tens of millions of {dollars} value of digital property.
Wearing a backpack, Bankman-Fried marched by means of a sea of cameras as he entered the Manhattan courthouse on a wet day to face earlier than Judge Lewis A. Kaplan. Bankman-Fried’s lawyer, Mark Cohen, introduced his shopper’s plea, saying: “He pleads not guilty to all counts.”
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York has charged Bankman-Fried with eight counts of fraud, cash laundering and different monetary crimes. Bankman-Fried, who stepped down as FTX’s CEO in November, additionally violated political contribution legal guidelines by donating to candidates and committees in New York below one other individual’s identify, authorities mentioned.
More particularly, prosecutors alleged that Bankman-Fried duped clients through the use of their crypto property to pay for money owed and bills incurred by FTX’s hedge fund, Alameda Research. Bankman-Fried and different high executives dedicated commodities and securities fraud in addition to created false monetary data about Alameda Research to defraud lenders, prosecutors mentioned in an indictment unsealed final month.
Prior to his look, his attorneys despatched a letter to the decide, saying Bankman-Fried’s dad and mom in current weeks have turn into the goal of “intense media scrutiny, harassment and threats, including communications expressing a desire that they suffer physical harm.”
As a consequence, the attorneys requested that the names be redacted on courtroom paperwork for the 2 people who have been lined as much as signal Bankman-Fried’s $250 million private recognizance bond. He was launched with digital monitoring about two weeks in the past on the situation that he await trial at his dad and mom’ home in Palo Alto, California.
Jane Rosenberg
Legal specialists count on a chronic courtroom battle, with prosecutors needing to to show Bankman-Fried deliberately swindled FTX clients.
Gary Wang, who co-founded the corporate, and former Alameda CEO Carolyn Ellison have already pleaded responsible to fraud prices. Ellison and Wang are anticipated to function authorities witnesses throughout Bankman-Fried’s trial, federal prosecutors mentioned final month.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.