Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, will plead not guilty to fraud and other charges in his upcoming indictment.
according to a report by wall street journalBankman-Fried is expected to enter a not guilty plea on Tuesday, Jan. 3, in Manhattan, which cited a person familiar with the situation.
The plea of not guilty was widely expected as it is very common for criminal defendants to initially plead not guilty. The defendants are free to change their plea at a later date.
As mentioned, Bankman-Fried was arrested Earlier this month, US prosecutors in the Bahamas formally filed criminal charges against him. After an inconclusive week, the crypto boss was finally extradited to the US to face criminal charges.
The Southern District of New York, which is probing the collapse of Bankman-Fried and FTX and its associated trading firm Alameda, charged SBF with eight criminal charges including wire fraud and conspiracy by misappropriation of client funds. Separately, the Securities and Exchange Commission accused SBF of “conducting a scheme to defraud equity investors in FTX”.
Prior to his arrest, the SBF attributed the nearly $10 billion hole in FTX funds to sloppy record-keeping and a bank-account issue that forced Alameda, an affiliated trading firm, to cover large losses from FTX users’ money. Research allowed.
SBF, who invited the BBC to his mansion in the Bahamas, told media that he did not commit fraud. A few days before he was arrested, he said, “I didn’t intentionally cheat, I don’t think I cheated, I didn’t want any of that to happen. I certainly wasn’t as capable as I thought.” ,
Last week, Caroline Ellison, former CEO of Alameda Research agreed to plead guilty to seven felonies, including charges of wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering. Similarly, Gary Wang, former chief technology officer of FTX, has pleaded guilty to criminal charges. Both are cooperating with federal investigators.
As of now, the SBF is kept under house arrest at the Bankman-Fried family home in Palo Alto. he was released from jail last week posting a $250m bond in a New York court.
Notably, the SBF was also charged with conspiracy to defraud the United States and violating campaign finance laws. Prosecutors say the SBF conspired with others to make illegal contributions to candidates, defrauding the Federal Election Commission beginning in 2020.
In the 2021-2022 election cycle, the former FTX CEO was the second largest donor to the Democratic Party, after billionaire George Soros, donating $39,884,256 to the Democrats. Elon Musk has even suggested that it could be donated up to $1 billion To the Democrats.
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