Sam Bankman-Fried reportedly pleaded not guilty for all recent charges including bribing Chinese officials. The erstwhile crypto billionaire might seeks relief from the latest count of charges against him. Initially, he was indicted with eight charges, followed by five more charges and now the latest one regarding bribery.
According to CNBC, Mark Cohen, an attorney for Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) will file a motion in the New York Federal court. The motion will be to request the court to not consider the recently filed five charges for trials.
Reportedly, the legal team argued that SBF is liable to be tried only for the charges indicted at the time of extradition. This was in accordance with the treaty between the United States and the Bahamas when the former formally requested SBF’s extradition.
Per SBF’s spokesperson, it was reported that in the court, Cohen challenged the newly imposed charges at the time of filing of motions.
Since the arrest of the disgraced founder and former CEO of bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, SBF has been indicted with thirteen charges. In the latest round, federal prosecutors brought an accused Sam Bankman-Fried bribing Chinese government officials.
As per the United States Attorney Office for the Southern District of New York, Bankman-Fried was accused of directing a bribe of around $40 million in cryptocurrency. Reportedly, ‘one or more’ officials could have been bribed.
TheCoinRepublic reported earlier that SBF and his associates were seeking unfreezing of their accounts linked Alameda Research. The accounts reportedly hold assets worth $1 billion. Prosecutors alleged that after trying ‘numerous methods’ and failing in both legal and personal efforts, the multimillion-dollar bribery took place.
The unfrozen assets belonging to Alameda were allegedly used for funding the trades of Alameda which were then generating losses.
Initially, SBF was charged with eight charges including wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, commodities fraud, securities fraud, money laundering and even conspiring to defraud the Federal Election Commission and violating campaign finance etc. In February this year, he was charged for illegal political donations and bank fraud, etc.
Currently SBF is on bail on a $250 million bond and is currently residing in California with his parents. The next hearing is likely to be held in October and if proven guilty, he could be imprisoned for upto 150 years.
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Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2023/03/31/sam-bankman-fried-denies-latest-bribery-indictment/