FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded innocent to the fraud on Tuesday. The former tech billionaire has appeared before a New York court, where he must answer for his role in the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
The 30-year-old Bankman-Fried is accused of misleading investors and using the money customers feed into his platform for his own profit. The actual trial won’t take place until early October.
Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas after FTX went bankrupt. He was later extradited to the United States. FTX founder is accused of embezzling billions of dollars in client deposits. These were transferred to the FTX-linked Alameda Research investment fund, which invested the money in all sorts of companies.
The Bahamas, meanwhile, has seized assets belonging to FTX. They were worth $3.5 billion at the time of bankruptcy. The Caribbean state wants to transfer those digital assets to the customers and creditors where they belong.
Bankman-Fried was released on bail in the United States. He paid $250 million for it. The former billionaire is under house arrest with his parents in California. According to Bankman-Fried’s lawyers, his parents have since been threatened.
