The FTX founder is confined to his parents’ home in Palo Alto until his next scheduled trial on October 2.
Sam Bankman-Fried aka SBF, the founder of now bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, pleaded not guilty to five latest federal charges, including the one about bribing Chinese officials, in the federal court. Attorney Mark Cohen entered a plea on behalf of SBF in the Manhattan federal court on Thursday, according to a Reuters report.
Previously, SBF has pleaded not guilty to eight other charges of fraud and conspiracy where he is alleged to have stolen billions of investors’ money in one of the biggest financial frauds in the history of the United States. Earlier this week, U.S. prosecutors unsealed the new indictment on Bankman-Fried wherein SBF bribed Chinese authorities in exchange for unfreezing his crypto assets.
According to the new bribery conspiracy indictment, SBF directed a crypto payment of $40 million to a private wallet from the main account of Alameda, FTX’s associated trading firm. This was made to convince the Chinese law enforcement authorities to unfreeze Alameda accounts with more than $1 billion of cryptocurrency that they froze in early 2021.
The founder of the collapsed FTX cryptocurrency exchange was arrested in the Bahamas last year on accusations that he orchestrated fraud by misusing FTX’s investors’ money. He is further accused of squandering billions on a crypto hedge fund Alameda Research, a crypto fund that was also founded by Bankman-Fried.
SBF was later brought to the U.S. where he is now confined to his parents’ home in Palo Alto, California until his next scheduled trial on October 2. Three former FTX members Caroline Ellison, Gary Wang, and Nishad Singh have all pleaded guilty to several charges and agreed to cooperate with investigators.
