Last month, two of Bankman and Fried’s closest pals acknowledged guilt, strengthening the prosecution’s case.
Sam Bankman-Fried is reportedly planning to enter a not-guilty plea on Tuesday in response to accusations that he misled investors and stole billions of dollars from his now-defunct FTX cryptocurrency exchange. This is according to a source with knowledge of the case.
Bankman-Fried is accused of using FTX customer money for illegal activities like funding his Alameda Research hedge fund, buying real estate, and making substantial political contributions.
A lawyer representing Bankman-Fried did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bankman-Fried has been freed on a $250 million bond following his extradition last month from the Bahamas, where he resided and the exchange was situated.
Since his release, Bankman-Fried has been under electronic monitoring, and he is now required to live with his parents, who are both professors at Stanford Law School.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology alum is accused of breaching the law regarding campaign financing and money laundering among six counts of conspiracy and two counts of wire fraud. He faces a maximum sentence of 115 years in prison if proven guilty.
While running FTX, Bankman-Fried admitted that he made mistakes, but he argued that he did not believe he was criminally culpable.
The 30-year-old cryptocurrency entrepreneur rode a rise in the price of bitcoin and other digital assets to become a multibillionaire and a significant political donor in the United States up until FTX crashed in early November as a result of a spike in withdrawals.
Last month, two of Bankman and Fried’s closest pals acknowledged guilt, strengthening the prosecution’s case.
Both Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda, and Gary Wang, the former CTO of FTX, entered pleas of guilty to seven and four criminal charges, respectively, and pledged to cooperate with the authorities.
According to a transcript of her Dec. 19 plea hearing, Ellison admitted to the prosecution that she and Bankman-Fried had agreed to keep the hedge fund’s limitless borrowing capacity from FTX’s investors, lenders, and clients a secret.
