Summary:
- Sam Bankman-Fried will reportedly please not guilty to new criminal charges filed by U.S. prosecutors.
- The 13-count indictment by the Department of Justice against the FTX founder includes bribery, fraud, and money laundering charges.
- Prosecutors are also pushing for new bail conditions that would restrict SBF’s access to the internet and curtail any supposed witness tampering.
Sam Bankman-Fried will reportedly plead not guilty to new criminal charges filed by U.S. prosecutors alleging campaign finance violations and bribes made to Chinese authorities, per a Reuters report on Thursday.
The new charges form part of a stacked 13-count indictment against the former FTX crypto exchange CEO. Prosecutors claim that Bankman-Fried bribed one or more Chinese officials with $40 million in crypto to unfreeze Alameda Research accounts that held $1 billion worth of digital assets. Another filing also alleged that SBF violated U.S. campaign finance laws by conspiring to make illegal political donations.
Initially, the Department of Justice filed eight charges against Bankman-Fried after his arrest in the Bahamas last year. The charges from the unsealed indictment include conspiracy, fraud, and money laundering. Bankman-Fried pleaded ‘not guilty’ to all eight charges and is awaiting trial in October this year.
SBF has not appeared in court to deny the other five charges, although reports say he will plead not guilty to all 13 charges.
While Bankman-Fried remains adamant that his actions while leading FTX were not illegal, other top execs like Caroline Ellison, Gary Wang, and Nishad Singh admitted to fraud. Former FTX lawyer Daniel Friedberg also supposedly helped prosecutors build their criminal case against SBF.
New Bail Terms Agreed For Sam Bankman-Fried
Federal prosecutors and Bankman-Fried’s lawyers agreed on new bail terms for the fallen crypto tycoon, per recent court documents. U.S. authorities previously shared concerns about SBF’s lax bail conditions and claimed that he tampered with witness testimony.
The new conditions will provide Sam Bankman-Fried with a mobile phone without internet access and a laptop restricted to certain websites. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan of the Southern District of New York is yet to rule on the agreed terms.