NEW YORK, Dec 28 (Portal) – Sam Bankman-Fried is expected to file a plea bargain next week for defrauding investors and looting billions of dollars in customer funds at his failed FTX cryptocurrency exchange.
The 30-year-old is expected to be arraigned before US District Judge Lewis Kaplan in federal court in Manhattan on the afternoon of Jan. 3, 2023, court filings showed on Wednesday.
Kaplan was assigned to the case Tuesday after the original judge resigned because her husband’s law firm advised FTX before its collapse.
Prosecutors have accused Bankman-Fried of engaging in a years-long “scam of epic proportions” by using client deposits to support his hedge fund firm Alameda Research, buying properties and making political donations.
Bankman-Fried faces two counts of wire fraud and six counts of conspiracy, including money laundering and campaign finance violations, and could face decades in prison if convicted.
Prior to his December 12 arrest, Bankman-Fried acknowledged risk management flaws at FTX but said he doesn’t believe he has criminal liability.
Two of his associates, Caroline Ellison, former CEO of Alameda, and Gary Wang, former chief technology officer of FTX, have pleaded guilty to their role in FTX’s collapse and have agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.
A lawyer for Bankman-Fried did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Bankman-Fried was released on $250 million bail on December 22 and ordered to stay with his parents in Palo Alto, California, where they teach at Stanford Law School. It is subject to electronic surveillance.
FTX filed for bankruptcy protection on November 11. Its new chief executive, John Ray, told Congress Dec. 13 that the exchange had lost $8 billion in client funds while being run by “grossly inexperienced, inexperienced individuals.”
Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York Editing by Matthew Lewis
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