Accountability

Sam Bankman-Fried pleads not guilty to defrauding customers

Published

3 years ago

January 8, 2023

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges after he allegedly defrauded his customers.

Thirty-year-old Bankman-Fried was indicted last month on charges of wire fraud and conspiracy-related charges.

Bankman-Fried is currently out on a $250 million bond. He was arraigned in federal court on Tuesday, where he was joined by his mother and his attorneys. A trial date has been scheduled for Oct. 2.

He is accused of stealing customer funds from FTX and funneling the money to Alameda Research, FTX’s affiliated crypto hedge fund, as well as donating it to politicians. FTX filed for bankruptcy in November.

Multiple FTX executives have already pled guilty to criminal charges for their alleged role in the scheme.

After being arrested in the Bahamas and extradited back to the U.S., Bankman-Fried was granted bail and ordered to stay under house arrest in his parents’ home in Palot Alto, California. He has also been ordered to wear a monitoring device and his passport was confiscated.

If convicted on all charges, Bankman-Fried could face up to 115 years in prison.

Terry A. Hurlbut

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Terry A. Hurlbut has been a student of politics, philosophy, and science for more than 35 years. He is a graduate of Yale College and has served as a physician-level laboratory administrator in a 250-bed community hospital. He also is a serious student of the Bible, is conversant in its two primary original languages, and has followed the creation-science movement closely since 1993.