Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to eight different counts of wire fraud, securities fraud, and conspiracy before a U.S. federal court in the Southern District of New York on Tuesday.
U.S. prosecutors allege that under Bankman-Fried’s direction FTX, once considered one of the largest and most-trusted cryptocurrency exchanges, transferred billions in customer assets to his trading firm, Alameda Research.
If convicted of these charges, Bankman-Fried faces up to 115 years in prison.
Bankman-Fried initially appeared before the court on December 22, following his extradition from custody The Bahamas, which followed his December 12 arrest.
Bankman-Fried has been free on a $250 million bond at his parents’ home in Palo Alto, California.
In this second and final arraignment hearing, Bankman-Fried was permitted to enter a plea to his charges.
Following a recusal of the case by Judge Ronnie Abrams ,who cited previous conflicting business relationships between FTX and her husband’s law firm, Davis & Polk, Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan presided over Tuesday’s arraignment.
FTX spent customer funds in myriad ways, including crypto trading, venture capital investments, Bahamian real estate purchases, over $1 billion in loans to FTX executives, and nearly $80 million in political contributions according to court testimony from FTX’s new CEO John J. Ray.
Former Alameda and FTX executives — Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang — have pleadeded guilty to the charges.
Bankman-Fried’s $250 million bond was secured by his parents who used the equity in their $4 million Palo Alto home along with two other unidentified persons.
Earlier Tuesday morning, Bankman-Fried’s legal defense filed a motion requesting that the court redact the signatures of the two remaining bail “sureties” and that the government not publicly disclose their names.
The case is USA v. Bankman-Fried, 22-cr-00673, US District Court, Southern District of New York.
This is breaking news. This story will be updated.
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