Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not responsible in New York federal court docket Thursday to 5 further costs associated to the collapse of his former crypto trade FTX and hedge fund Alameda Research.
Bankman-Fried’s lawyer, Mark Cohen, stated he plans to file a movement that his shopper not be tried on all of the counts, arguing that he can’t be tried on costs introduced after his extradition.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York unveiled its third spherical of prison costs in opposition to the disgraced former CEO of FTX in a superseding indictment that was unsealed Tuesday. This time, the main target was on Bankman-Fried allegedly bribing a overseas authorities.
Prosecutors allege that Bankman-Fried — who arrived on the courthouse about an hour earlier than the listening to, wanting raveled after an intense media scrum — directed the cost of a minimum of $40 million in cryptocurrency to a number of Chinese authorities officers in an try to unfreeze buying and selling accounts tied to his crypto hedge fund, Alameda Research.
Bankman-Fried and his associates thought of and tried “numerous methods” to unfreeze the accounts, which contained round $1 billion value of cryptocurrency, prosecutors allege. Ultimately, after each authorized and private efforts failed, Bankman-Fried agreed to and directed a multimillion-dollar bribe to have the frozen accounts unlocked, prosecutors alleged.
Bankman-Fried’s hedge fund then allegedly used the unfrozen belongings to proceed to fund Alameda’s loss-generating trades, persevering with on what the federal government says was a fraud upon prospects and buyers for one more yr.
The onetime crypto billionaire, who didn’t communicate in the course of the entirety of the listening to, additionally pleaded not responsible to costs associated to financial institution fraud, cash laundering, working an unlicensed cash transmitting enterprise and making illegal political contributions within the U.S. The 13-count indictment offers particulars of tons of of political donations that Bankman-Fried allegedly directed in violation of federal marketing campaign finance legal guidelines. Bankman-Fried already pleaded not responsible to eight different counts.
FTX and Alameda imploded in November after issues about their stability sheet changed into a veritable financial institution run. In addition to this federal indictment, Bankman-Fried additionally faces civil costs from each the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Meanwhile, FTX stays mired in Delaware chapter court docket proceedings.
Bankman-Fried’s trial is ready to start in October.
— CNBC’s Dawn Giel contributed to this report.
Source: www.cnbc.com”