• Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of FTX, has pleaded not guilty through his lawyer on eight different counts of charges, including wire fraud and campaign finance violations.
• The trial, which will be held in the Southern District of New York, is set to begin in early October.
• The judge has granted Bankman-Fried’s request to seal the names of the two co-signers who guaranteed his $250 million bail bond due to safety and privacy concerns. Bankman-Fried is also prohibited from accessing or transferring any assets tied to FTX or its affiliated entities.

Weeks after being extradited back to the United States, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) pleaded not guilty through his lawyer against the eight different counts of charges, including wire fraud and campaign finance violations connected to the collapse of FTX, where he is the founder and former CEO. 

Bankman-Fried’s filing of a not-guilty plea on January 3, 2023, is his second appearance in a New York courthouse, where U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan of the Southern District of New York ruled that the trial about SBF’s cases will start in early October. 

The judge also granted the request of the FTX founder to seal the names of the two additional co-signers who guaranteed his $250 million bail bond because of some safety and privacy concerns. 

The $250 million bail was granted to Bankman-Fried during his first appearance in court. It is not paid in full but in the form of a pledge that will be paid in full should he violate the bond requirements, such as not being allowed to make financial transactions for more than $1,000, not being able to open new lines of credit, not being able to leave the house except to exercise, and having to go through substance abuse and mental health treatment.

Meanwhile, Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon revealed that the prosecution, which she is representing, is aiming to complete all the documents as the trial progresses. The U.S. government is said to release all the materials it collected over the past few weeks, including the documents shared by FTX’s bankruptcy attorneys. 

Sassoon has also asked the court to amend Bankman-Fried’s bond requirements, such as prohibiting the founder from accessing or transferring any assets tied to FTX or its affiliated entities. The U.S. lawyer requested it after finding out that some Alameda wallets allegedly moved thousands of dollars worth of crypto to other wallets. 

And despite Bankman-Fried’s claim that he is not involved in these alleged suspicious transactions, the court still accepted the prosecution’s request. 

Calendar of Court Hearings in Sam Bankman-Fried’s Case:

• The January 3rd plea has made the judge schedule Bankman-Fried’s court trial to start by October.
• However, his lawyers will have until April 3 to file a motion to dismiss the case, and federal prosecutors must respond by April 24. The subsequent reply from Bankman-Fried’s team is then due on May 8.
• Both parties will then have the chance to argue their cases in a hearing on May 18, 2023. 
• If Bankman-Fried’s team failed to win the motion to dismiss the case on May 18, the court trial will formally begin by the first half of October, but it may be changed depending on the judge’s decision. This means that the lawyers from both parties will have nine months to prepare the necessary documents to prove each other’s statements. 

Timeline of the FTX Collapse Covered by BitPinas:

• Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) announced that it is set to liquidate its own FTX Tokens ($FTT) after a Coindesk article revealed that Alameda, FTX’s sister company, rests largely on FTT and not on any independent asset. [Read: Just House Cleaning: Binance To Liquidate Own FTX Tokens]
• CZ revealed that his company has signed a “letter of intent” to acquire FTX Exchange. [Read: BREAKING: Binance Signs Deal to Acquire FTX Exchange]
• FTT went into freefall and lost most of its value (about 80%) [Read: FTX Token Price Drops 80% as News of Binance Buying FTX Surface]
• CZ denied that there is any kind of “conspiracy” against FTX, or that he’s in a “fight” with its CEO Sam Bankman-Fried. [Read: Binance CEO Denies FTX Conspiracy]
• Binance backed out of its deal to purchase FTX because “the issues are beyond our control or ability to help.”[Read: Binance Will No Longer Acquire FTX]
• BlockFi files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, weeks after the collapse of FTX, which previously signed a term sheet to provide credit to the embattled crypto lender last June. [Read: What Happened? BlockFi Files for Bankruptcy Amid FTX Crypto Contagion]
• The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has confirmed that it has asked locally licensed cryptocurrency exchanges about their exposure to FTX’s downfall, exchanges then clarified that none was affected by the downfall. [Read: Report: BSP Asks Local VASPs of FTX Exposure, Exchanges Respond]
• SBF has been arrested by Bahamian authorities in relation to the collapse of his founded exchange, a CNBC report revealed. [Read: BREAKING: FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Arrested]
• After his arrest, he was charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the US SEC for wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and campaign finance violations. [Read: Days After SBF’s Arrest, What Happened Next?]
• SBF’s first appearance in court has made him request a $250 million bail with bond requirements. Aside from him, two other executives from his previous crypto empire, Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research, and FTX co-founder Gary Wang, have pleaded guilty to charges tied to FTX’s collapse.[Read: FTX Update: SBF Extradited and Released on Bail, Ellison and Wang Plead Guilty]

This article is published on BitPinas: FTX Founder Pleads Not Guilty, Trial to Start in October

Disclaimer: BitPinas articles and its external content are not financial advice. The team serves to deliver independent, unbiased news to provide information for Philippine-crypto and beyond.

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