Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and former CEO of FTX, appeared before US District Judge Lewis Kaplan in a Federal Court in New York and denied the charges against him. The judge granted a request from Bankman-Fried's legal team to keep the identities of the guarantors confidential for his $250m bail. The hearing was adjourned to Oct. 2, 2023.
Bankman-Fried first appeared in a Federal Court on Dec. 22, after being extradited to the US from the Bahamas. Bankman-Fried, who will face 115 years in prison if found guilty of 8 separate charges including money laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, wire fraud and political campaign finance violations, was released on bail of $250m.
Bankman-Fried was released on the condition that he be kept under electronic surveillance at home by wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet, leave the house only to exercise, make no more than $1,000 in financial transactions, hand over his passport and sign a written statement that he will appear in court.
FTX co-founder Gary Wang and former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison pleaded guilty to the charges on Dec. 21, 2022, claiming that FTX was a borrowing facility for Alameda from 2019 to 2022.
