Sam Bankman-Fried Pleads Not Guilty To Fraud, Money Laundering; Judge Sets This Trial Target Date

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to eight charges in a New York federal court, related to the collapse of his exchange and hedge fund Alameda Research, CNBC reported.

The charges include conspiracy to commit wire fraud and securities fraud, individual charges of securities fraud and wire fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy to avoid campaign finance regulations.

His attorneys had previously filed a motion to seal the names of two individuals who had guaranteed Bankman-Fried's good behavior with a bond, citing safety concerns for his parents.

The motion was approved by Judge Lewis Kaplan.

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Trial To Commence In October

The judge overseeing the case has set a target date for the trial to commence on or around Oct. 2, 2023.

Bankman-Fried returned to the U.S. from the Bahamas on Dec. 21 and was released on a $250 million recognizance bond secured by his family home in California the following day.

The report further stated that the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) has also announced the launch of a new task force to recover victim assets as part of an ongoing investigation into Bankman-Fried and the collapse of FTX FTT/USD.

The SDNY has accused Bankman-Fried of using $8 billion worth of customer assets for lavish purchases and vanity projects, including stadium naming rights and political donations.

The federal charges against Bankman-Fried were accompanied by complaints from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission and were assisted by Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research, and Gary Wang, a co-founder of FTX, both of whom pleaded guilty on Dec. 21.

A highly concentrated stake in self-issued FTX tokens, which Bankman-Fried's hedge fund Alameda Research used as collateral for billions in cryptocurrency loans, accelerated the fall of FTX.

When rival exchange Binance said it would sell its holding in FTT, there was a significant outflow of money. A few days later, the company filed for bankruptcy.

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