• Sam Bankman-Fried, co-founder of FTX, has plead not guilty to criminal charges of knowingly cheating investors.
• US District Judge Lewis Kaplan set the trial date for the start of October.
• This comes after two of his former colleagues, Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang, plead guilty to similar charges.
The co-founder of the cryptocurrency trading platform FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, has plead not guilty to criminal charges of knowingly cheating investors. This brings him in stark contrast to two of his former colleagues, Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang, who both pleaded guilty to similar charges.
The criminal charges Bankman-Fried is facing allege that he funneled funds from investors, who deposited them on FTX, for his personal purposes and Alameda’s trading. On top of this, he is charged with wire fraud and money laundering. Last month, Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas and subsequently deported to the United States.
On January 3rd, Bankman-Fried had his first hearing and US District Judge Lewis Kaplan set the trial date for the start of October. This is the first time Bankman-Fried has been able to officially plead his innocence and it will be interesting to see how the trial plays out in the coming months.
The news of Bankman-Fried’s plea has been met with mixed reactions in the cryptocurrency and legal communities. For some, they believe that the charges leveled against Bankman-Fried are unjustified and that the trial is a waste of resources. On the other hand, there are those who believe that Bankman-Fried should be held accountable for his actions and that the legal system should be allowed to take its course.
Regardless of the outcome, the case of Sam Bankman-Fried is sure to be one of the most closely watched in the cryptocurrency world in the coming months. With the trial date now set for October, both sides are sure to be preparing for what is sure to be an interesting and potentially explosive court case.