FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty in a federal court Tuesday to charges of fraud, conspiracy, campaign finance law violations, and money laundering.
A federal prosecutor, Danielle Sassoon, estimated that a trial could take four weeks, and said the government will soon turn over hundreds of thousands of documents of evidence to defense lawyers.
Bankman-Fried, also known as SBF, is accused of stealing billions of dollars in FTX customer deposits to support his Alameda Research hedge fund, buy real estate, and make millions of dollars in political contributions. He could face as many as 115 years in prison if convicted.
Last month, he was extradited from the Bahamas, where he lived and where his cryptocurrency exchange was based. He was released to his parents’ home in Palo Alto, California, on $250 million bond in late December.
Lawyers for Bankman-Fried have said his parents, who co-signed the bond, have been receiving physical threats since FTX’s collapse, and that other co-signers might face similar harassment unless their names were kept secret. On Tuesday, the judge also imposed a new bail condition, saying Bankman-Fried cannot access FTX or Alameda assets.
Two of his former associates, Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang, pleaded guilty to federal charges and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. Ellison had served as the head of Alameda while Wang was FTX’s chief technology officer before the two firms collapsed in November.
Bankman-Fried, Ellison, and Wang were also sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Ellison and Wang settled those civil cases.
FTX collapsed when it was revealed that the exchange did not have enough funds to fulfill withdrawals. Prosecutors alleged that it was secretly providing Alameda with funds, which in turn was making loans to Bankman-Fried and other executives while Bankman-Fried and others misled investors about its finances.
Before Bankman-Fried’s arraignment last month, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a news release that he was setting up a task force to investigate FTX’s collapse and will attempt to recover victims’ assets.
Interview
Just days before he was charged, Bankman-Fried struck a somber tone during his interview with the Wall Street Journal from his former home in the Bahamas. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate conceded that he could not account for billions that were lost during FTX’s collapse.“I don’t know of a violation of the terms of use. I don’t know every line of the terms of use. I can’t confidently say there wasn’t, but I don’t know of one,” he said. “I ask myself a lot how I made a series of mistakes that seem—they don’t just seem dumb. They seem like the type of mistakes I could see myself having ridiculed someone else for having made.”
Because of that interview and other recent ones, Bankman-Fried’s legal team faces an uphill battle when—and if—his case goes to trial.
Donations
Prosecutors last month wrote that Bankman-Fried spent millions of dollars in illegal political contributions to political action committees and candidates. Prosecutors said that also made donations to both Republicans and Democrats, but reports have said he overwhelmingly provided funds to Democrats and their PACs.Some reports said that he provided funding to left-wing news outlets like Semafor, ProPublica, and Vox, as well as partially funding the nonprofit Guarding Against Pandemics, which was run by his brother, Gabe.
Semafor co-founder Justin B. Smith said the startup media firm would allow “various government agencies” to determine “how best to handle” funding donated to the outlet. From his statement, it’s not clear if Semafor, a startup media company, will return the money.
