- Former CTO of FTX Gary Wang and former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison are cooperating with investigators
- Bankman-Fried has been charged with illegally using FTX customer funds to purchase real estate and assist Alameda Research.
- He was released on $250 million bail after being extradited from the Bahamas to the United States
Sam Bankman-Fried will file a plea of not guilty today. He cheated investors and went bankrupt. He was charged with stealing billions of dollars from CNBC’s Squawk Box, the FTX cryptocurrency exchange. report.
The reason for the plea, according to insiders, is to buy time for his legal team to investigate legal defenses and allow the discovery process to begin.
heavy blow
Former FTX CTO Gary Wang and former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison are cooperating in the investigation. They pleaded guilty to four of his and seven of her criminal charges, respectively.
This is a big blow as they were his closest allies. They were familiar with the inner workings of FTX and whether there was evidence of the alleged charges. It looks like it does, but insiders expect there must be some sort of “bookkeeping kind of thing.”
Bankman-Fried is charged with illegally using FTX client funds to buy real estate, support his Alameda Research hedge fund, and donate millions of dollars to various political causes. He will appear before U.S. District Judge Louis Kaplan in Manhattan at 2:00 p.m. Eastern time.
plea may vary
It is common for criminal defendants to begin with a plea of not guilty. They can change the petition at a later date.
Bankman-Fried was released on $250 million bail after being extradited to the United States from the Bahamas, home of FTX, where he was based. Since his release a month ago, he has been asked to live with his parents and is subject to electronic surveillance.
He faces up to 115 years in prison
The MIT graduate has been charged with six counts of conspiracy and two counts of wire fraud, including money laundering and campaign finance violations. If convicted, he faces up to 115 years in prison.
FTX’s new CEO, John Wray, has commented that the exchange was run by people who were “totally inexperienced”.
