In New York federal court on Thursday, Mar. 30, Sam Bankman-Fried entered a not-guilty plea to five new accusations stemming from the demise of his former cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, and hedge fund, Alameda Research.
Mark Cohen, Bankman-Fried's attorney, has stated his intention to submit a petition requesting that his client not be prosecuted on all counts. He noted that his client is not subject to trial on any accusations filed after his extradition.
Criminal Allegations
On Tuesday, Mar. 28, a superseding indictment was released by the US attorney's office for the Southern District of New York, detailing a third set of criminal accusations against the disgraced former CEO of FTX. This time, the allegations of bribery against Bankman-Fried concerned a foreign government.
Bankman-Fried arrived at the courthouse about an hour before the hearing looking disheveled after an intense press interview, as reported by CNBC. Prosecutors claim that he ordered the payment of no less than $40 million in cryptocurrency to one or more Chinese government officials in an effort to unfreeze trading accounts tethered to his crypto hedge fund, Alameda Research.
Allegedly holding about $1 billion in bitcoin, Bankman-Fried and his accomplices explored and attempted various approaches to activate the accounts. After exhausting legal and personal avenues, Bankman-Fried allegedly consented to and orchestrated a multimillion-dollar bribe to get the blocked accounts opened.
After unfreezing the funds, the government claims that Bankman-Fried's hedge fund continued to support Alameda's loss-making trades for an additional year, perpetuating what it claims was a fraud against consumers and investors.
See Also : Sam Bankman-Fried Faces New Criminal Charge for Bribing Chinese Officials for as much as $40M
Not Guilty Plea
The former cryptocurrency tycoon did not say a word throughout the whole hearing and pleaded not guilty to allegations of bank fraud, money laundering, running an unregistered money transmission company, and illegally contributing to US political campaigns.
According to the indictment's thirteen counts, Bankman-Fried violated federal campaign finance rules by overseeing hundreds of dollars in illegal political contributions. Bankman-Fried has entered no guilty plea on eight additional charges.
FTX 2022 Collapse
It came as a shock to the industry in late 2022 when FTX, one of the leading cryptocurrency exchange platforms, declared bankruptcy while showing no symptoms of operational breakdown. At the same time, Sam Bankman-Fried handed over the reins as CEO to his successor, who took over while the business crumbled around him.
After the company's failure, rumors circulated that the co-founder and former CEO had moved digital assets to the Bahamas. FTX made these allegations publicly.
Since then, authorities and Justice Department officials have argued to have Bankman-Fried extradited from the Bahamas to face fraud charges, which he has asserted his innocence of.
Alameda Research and FTX spent a fortune on creditors and other parties, even though the firm was having trouble staying afloat. This fact was not made public until recently.
DoorDash was on the list of FTX's creditors since the firm had paid them hundreds of dollars to use their meal delivery services.
