FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Pleads Not Guilty
• FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted bribery and campaign finance violations unveiled in two recent superseding indictments.
• Prosecutors added an attempted bribery charge earlier this week, alleging Bankman-Fried tried using over $40 million in crypto to bribe at least one Chinese government official to unlock funds in accounts tied to Alameda Research.
• During a court appearance on Thursday, Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Background
FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was charged with attempted bribery and campaign finance violations by prosecutors this week. The charge of attempted bribery alleges that he tried using over $40 million in crypto to bribe at least one Chinese government official to unlock funds in accounts tied to Alameda Research, another of his companies. During a court appearance on Thursday, Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Charges
Prosecutors unveiled the bribery charge on Tuesday which is an additional charge from the two recent superseding indictments against him. This charge accuses him of attempting to use over $40 million in cryptocurrency as a bribe for unlocking funds from accounts associated with Alameda Research.
Court Appearance
Bankman-Fried appeared before a court on Thursday where he plead not guilty to all charges brought against him by the prosecutors including attempted bribery and campaign finance violations.
Other Developments
Additionally, Justin Sun, founder of the Tron blockchain, is reportedly no longer a diplomat for Grenada according to reports from CoinDesk Regulatory Reporter Cheyenne Ligon who discussed SBF’s plea during her reportage.
