Former cryptocurrency trading platform FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried on Thursday pleaded not guilty to five new charges served on him by a federal judge in Manhattan, including corruption.
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“SBF,” as he is known, had already pleaded not guilty to eight counts in early January, mostly related to allegations of fraud related to his leadership of FTX.
Mr. Bankman-Fried and other executives are accused of using the accounts of FTX clients without their knowledge to fuel speculation at his investment company Alameda.
A significant portion of the alleged embezzlement was not recovered by the new team responsible for conducting the company’s orderly liquidation.
Extradited from the Bahamas to the United States in December, “SBF” faces decades of imprisonment. His trial is scheduled to begin in New York in October.
Among the new charges added to the file by the services of Manhattan Attorney Damian Williams are corruption charges.
US authorities allege Sam Bankman-Fried forced Chinese officials to pay at least $40 million in bribes to regain access to frozen assets.
In 2021, according to the document filed Tuesday, Mr. Bankman-Fried transferred these funds to obtain from Chinese authorities the release of more than $1 billion in cryptocurrency housed in accounts in Alameda’s name.
The American authorities do not indicate whether the approach made it possible to end the sanctions.
Then-second-largest cryptocurrency exchange FTX filed for bankruptcy in November, the victim of a crisis of confidence and calls for mass withdrawals from customers.
Also indicted, two other former FTX and Alameda executives, Gary Wang and Caroline Ellison, have pleaded guilty to multiple charges and have agreed to cooperate with American authorities, unlike Bankman-Fried, who denies the charges against him.
Sam Bankman-Fried, who has been credited with personal wealth of $26 billion, is also accused of investing funds from FTX clients in real estate in the Bahamas without authorization.
Manhattan prosecutors have also accused him of using the same funds to donate to Democratic politicians, most notably Joe Biden, during his presidential campaign.