Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not responsible in New York federal court docket Tuesday to eight prices associated to the collapse of his former crypto alternate FTX and hedge fund Alameda Analysis.
The onetime crypto billionaire was indicted on prices of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and securities fraud, particular person prices of securities fraud and wire fraud, cash laundering and conspiracy to keep away from marketing campaign finance laws.
Decide Lewis Kaplan proposed Oct. 2 as the beginning date for Bankman-Fried’s trial.
Bankman-Fried arrived outdoors the courthouse in a black SUV and was swarmed with cameras from the second his automobile arrived. The scrum grew so thick that Bankman-Fried’s mom was unable to exit the automobile, falling onto the moist pavement as cameras scrambled to catch a glimpse of her son.
Former FTX chief government Sam Bankman-Fried (C) arrives to enter a plea earlier than US District Decide Lewis Kaplan within the Manhattan federal court docket, New York, January 3, 2023.
Ed Jones | AFP | Getty Photos
Bankman-Fried was hauled by safety by way of the throng and into the courthouse in a matter of moments, with photographers scrambling to get out of the way in which.
Earlier within the day, attorneys for Bankman-Fried filed a movement to seal the names of two people who had assured Bankman-Fried launch on bail with a bond. They claimed that the visibility of the case and the defendant had already posed a threat to Bankman-Fried’s dad and mom, and that the guarantors shouldn’t be topic to the identical scrutiny. Kaplan authorised the movement in court docket.
Federal prosecutor Danielle Sassoon informed the court docket that Bankman-Fried had labored with overseas regulators to switch belongings that FTX’s U.S. administration had been trying to get better by way of the Chapter 11 chapter course of.
Regulators within the Bahamas and FTX’s U.S. attorneys have been preventing for weeks in Delaware chapter court docket over a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands, if not billions, of {dollars} price of cryptocurrency. FTX’s attorneys insist that Bahamian regulators have illicitly transferred a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of {dollars}, and that Bankman-Fried assisted them.
Bahamian regulators say that native legal guidelines give them jurisdiction over these belongings, and dispute the validity of the U.S. Chapter 11 proceedings.
Federal prosecutors seem to agree with FTX’s U.S. attorneys. Sassoon requested Kaplan to impose a brand new restriction barring Bankman-Fried from transferring or accessing FTX buyer belongings. The choose authorised that movement as nicely.
Bankman-Fried returned to the U.S. from the Bahamas on Dec. 21, and the subsequent day was launched on a $250 million recognizance bond, secured by his household house in California.
Federal prosecutors additionally introduced the launch of a brand new process drive to get better sufferer belongings as a part of an ongoing investigation into Bankman-Fried and the collapse of FTX.
“The Southern District of New York is working across the clock to reply to the implosion of FTX,” U.S. Legal professional Damian Williams stated in an announcement Tuesday.
The U.S. lawyer’s workplace for the SDNY had argued that Bankman-Fried used $8 billion worth of customer assets for extravagant real estate purchases and vanity projects, together with stadium naming rights and millions in political donations.
Federal prosecutors constructed the indictment towards Bankman-Fried with uncommon velocity, packaging collectively the felony prices towards the 30-year-old in a matter of weeks. The federal prices got here alongside complaints from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission.
They had been assisted by two of Bankman-Fried’s closest allies, Caroline Ellison, former CEO of his hedge fund Alameda Analysis, and Gary Wang, who co-founded FTX with Bankman-Fried.
Ellison, 28, and Wang, 29, pleaded guilty on Dec. 21. Their plea offers with prosecutors got here after rampant hypothesis that Ellison, Bankman-Fried’s onetime romantic accomplice, was cooperating with federal probes.
One other former FTX government, Ryan Salame, apparently first alerted regulators to alleged wrongdoing inside FTX. Salame, a former co-CEO at FTX, flagged “potential mishandling of purchasers’ belongings” to Bahamian regulators two days earlier than the crypto alternate filed for chapter safety, based on a submitting from the Securities Fee of the Bahamas.
Bankman-Fried was accused by federal regulation enforcement and monetary regulators of perpetrating what the SEC known as one of many largest and most “brazen” frauds in latest reminiscence. His gorgeous fall was precipitated by reporting that raised questions on the character of his hedge fund’s balance sheet.
Within the weeks since FTX’s Nov. 11 Delaware chapter submitting, the extent of Bankman-Fried’s alleged malfeasance has been uncovered. Alternative CEO John J. Ray stated there was a “complete failure of corporate control.“
Bankman-Fried was indicted in New York federal court docket on Dec. 9, and was arrested by Bahamas regulation enforcement on the request of U.S. prosecutors on Dec. 12. Following his indictment, Bankman-Fried’s authorized staff within the Bahamas flip-flopped on whether or not or not their shopper would consent to extradition.
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