Sam Bankman-Fried to enter plea in FTX fraud case

NEW YORK, Dec 28 (Reuters) – Sam Bankman-Fried is predicted to enter a plea subsequent week to legal expenses he defrauded traders and looted billions of {dollars} in buyer funds at his failed FTX cryptocurrency change.

The 30-year-old is predicted to be arraigned on the afternoon of Jan. 3, 2023, earlier than U.S. District Choose Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan federal courtroom, courtroom information on Wednesday confirmed.

Kaplan was assigned to the case on Tuesday, after the unique decide recused herself as a result of her husband’s legislation agency had suggested FTX earlier than its collapse.

Prosecutors have accused Bankman-Fried of participating in a years-long “fraud of epic proportions,” by utilizing buyer deposits to assist his Alameda Analysis hedge fund agency, purchase actual property and make political contributions.

Bankman-Fried is charged with two counts of wire fraud and 6 counts of conspiracy, together with to launder cash and commit marketing campaign finance violations, and if convicted may spend a long time in jail.

Earlier than his Dec. 12 arrest, Bankman-Fried acknowledged risk-management failures at FTX, however mentioned he didn’t imagine he was criminally liable.

Two of his associates, former Alameda chief government Caroline Ellison and former FTX chief expertise officer Gary Wang, have pleaded responsible over their roles in FTX’s collapse and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.

A lawyer for Bankman-Fried didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.

Bankman-Fried was launched on Dec. 22 on a $250 million bond and ordered to stick with his mother and father in Palo Alto, California, the place they train at Stanford Legislation College. He’s topic to digital monitoring.

FTX filed for chapter safety on Nov. 11. Its new chief government, John Ray, advised Congress on Dec. 13 that the change misplaced $8 billion of buyer cash whereas being run by “grossly inexperienced, non-sophisticated people.”

Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York
Enhancing by Matthew Lewis

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