Sam Bankman-Fried Pleads Not Guilty to All Charges

Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty in New York Federal court on Tuesday morning to eight counts of wire fraud, securities fraud and conspiracy. 

According to Yahoo Finance, if Bankman-Fried is convicted of these charges, he faces up to 115 years in prison. 

Prosecutors allege that Bankman-Fried transferred billions of dollars in customer assets from his cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, to his trading firm, Alameda Research. The once-trusted and successful company crumbled in a matter of days. 

Bankman-Fried was first arrested in the Bahamas on December 12 and then appeared before a court on December 22, following his extradition back to the U.S. He was freed on a $250 million bond secured by his parents and two other unknown persons. 

On Tuesday, the second and final arraignment hearing, Bankman-Fried entered a plea, in which he pleaded not guilty. Contrary to former FTX and Alameda executives, Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang, who have pleaded guilty to charges related to their roles. 

According to Yahoo Finance, “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.”