- SBF denied stealing billions of dollars worth of users’ funds.
- He once compared FTT with Tesla, Bitcoin etc.
- Ellison and Wang had pleaded guilty and could be speaking against Sam.
FTX-saga has been the biggest black swan event in the crypto industry’s history; every eye is on the trial and statements made by concerned persons, as the gravity of the case is very severe. Recently Sam Bankman-Fried denied the allegation of stealing billions of users’ funds.
Saying it as a true statement or just trying to put a blogger target upfront, Sam alleged that the CEO of the world’s biggest exchange was involved in months-long efforts to bring the once third-largest crypto exchange down.
According to Sam, what brought down the once-worth $32 billion crypto conglomerate down was his involvement in an $8 billion fraud.
The trial where to begin sometime in October 2023, and Sam is out on a $250 million recognizance bond, and he reportedly pleaded not guilty for all eight counts of wire fraud and conspiracy.
Bankman is in the cross-hairs of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Commodities Futures Trading Commission, etc.
At the start of 2022, SBF estimated Alameda’s total net assets to be $99 billion, but by October 2022, this value had dropped to $10 billion. Sam cleverly blamed this loss on the broader market and even compared FTT’s performance with that of Tesla, Bitcoin and Invesco QQQ, along with the ETF that tracks Nasdaq 100.
Federal prosecutors, regulators and bankruptcy lawyers have already contradicted the majority of claims made by Sam Bankman-Fried. Alleging that FTX and Alameda were not legitimate businesses but acted as a tool for SBF to commit this heist.
Bankman is yet to acknowledge the cooperation by supposedly ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison and Ex-CTO Gary Wang pleading guilty to the charges and could be working as witnesses in the case.
There was no acknowledgment of the first, like BlockFi, Gemini and Genesis, the major victims of FTX fallout by Sam Bankman-Fried.
Sam also pointed to a November 6, 2022, tweet that the CEO of the world’s largest crypto exchange had conducted a monthslong PR campaign against FTX. The CEO, when asked, denied the claims saying:
“FTX killed themselves […] because they stole billions of dollars.”
It is known that Sam was brought back from the Bahamas, and he is currently out on a $250,000 bond. Bankman has pleaded not guilty to all eight charges of wire fraud and conspiracy. The trial could begin in October 2023, when authorities and prosecutors will be given time to gather the data, analyze and prepare a strong case.
Alameda’s Caroline Ellison and former CTO Gary Wang had already pleaded guilty and could be working as witnesses against Sam. Speculated reasons behind this could be a reduced sentence or some deal offered by the authorities against their compliance.
Even though the pawns appear to be in the right places on the board, such high-profile and white-collar cases are known to have been settled outside the courtroom, and there is a possibility that such could be the case here.
Nancy J. Allen is a crypto enthusiast and believes that cryptocurrencies inspire people to be their own banks and step aside from traditional monetary exchange systems. She is also intrigued by blockchain technology and its functioning.
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2023/01/13/sam-bankman-fried-denies-stealing-user-funds/