Sam Bankman-Fried Arrives at New York Court as Trial Begins
Sam Bankman-Fried, also known as SBF, arrived at a New York City courthouse today. He will face oral arguments relating to his eight criminal charges over the implosion of FTX.
The 31-year-old’s legal team faced tough questions in the courtroom on Thursday as he continued to deny all criminal charges. The FTX founder’s defense team tried to argue there was no scienter, or intentional wrongdoing, when investors and customers of FTX were deceived about the uses of their money.
On one occasion, when Bankman-Fried’s lawyers had finished speaking, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan told him: “I congratulate you on an extraordinarily imaginative argument,” according to ABC News.
Bankman-Fried to Face Original Charges Only
US prosecutors have confirmed their intention to proceed with the trial of Bankman-Fried on the original eight charges levied against him. It could have been considerably worse for Bankman-Fried. The announcement follows a motion filed in the Bahamas, where the defendant argued against additional charges not in the original indictment.
The DoJ had unsealed four more charges in February following his extradition back to the United States. Since then, the prosecutors have made a modest and temporary concession. The new allegations may not fly this time around. But the prosecutors are ready to go ahead and try him all the same, on charges that could still land him in jail for many years.
Some of the additional charges include allegations that Bankman-Fried bribed a Chinese official. According to prosecutors, SBF paid $40 million to unfreeze a billion dollars in crypto assets.
Sam Bankman-Fried is the founder and former CEO of the defunct crypto exchange FTX. Certain of the charges relate to his alleged criminal management of the company. However, Bankman-Fried disagrees and maintains the collapse last November came as a result of negligence, as opposed to criminality.
His ex-colleagues, Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research, FTX’s sister company, and Gary Wang, co-founder of FTX, have already confessed to committing fraud.
BeInCrypto will update this story as it continues.
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