At a hearing on Tuesday, former CEO of FTX Sam Bankman-Fried countered the US Department of Justice’s charges and said he was innocent. According to a court filing, Bankman-Fried is facing a lot of charges, including:
Conspiracy to commit wire fraud on customers; Wire fraud on customers;
Conspiracy to commit wire fraud on lenders; Wire fraud on lenders;
Conspiracy to commit commodities fraud; Conspiracy to commit securities fraud;
Conspiracy to commit money laundering;
Conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and violate campaign finance laws.
Additionally, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleges Bankman-Fried misled investors and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) also charged him with fraud. With all these charges, Sam Bankman-Fried could face up to 115 years in prison.
Sam Bankman-Fried was later arrested by the Bahamas and extradited to the US, where he agreed to sign a $250 million bond to stay at his parents house in California over the Christmas holidays. During this time, the former CEO has been quite tight-lipped, he only made a statement claiming that he had no role in the reported transfers of funds involving Alameda.
Sam Bankman-Fried plead not guilty can tee up a potentially titanic court fight. The New York court judge set a tentative trial date of Oct. 2, 2023. Prosecutors said they will complete the collection of evidence in the coming weeks and will begin releasing relevant documents. Prosecutors again asked the court to warn Sam Bankman-Fried not to access any crypto wallets associated with FTX and related organizations.
Also at the hearing, Sam Bankman-Fried requested to ensure that two people backing his bail agreement stay anonymous. The lawyer of the former CEO said that Sam and his family have received many threats and don’t want anything dangerous to happen. The court approved this request.
Two of Sam’s close confidants, former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder and former CTO Gary Wang, have pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to the collapse of FTX and will cooperate with investigators. Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang are likely to be two important witnesses against Sam Bankman-Fried in the October trial.
Follow our channels for more crypto news:
- Cryptory Insights: https://t.me/CryptoryInsights
- Cryptory Global Community: https://t.me/CryptoryCommunity
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CryptoryNetwork
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/CryptoryNetwork