Manhattan US Lawyer Damian Williams has accused him of diverting funds from FTX purchasers, but in addition wire fraud, securities and commodities fraud, and cash laundering.
Danielle Sassoon, an lawyer for the prosecution, informed a listening to that the variety of victims of Sam Bankman-Fried’s alleged actions might be “in extra of 1,000,000”.
POINTING FINGERS
Charged with fraud and legal conspiracy, SBF, as Bankman-Fried is understood, was extradited on the finish of December from the Bahamas, the place FTX was headquartered, and released on a US$250 million bail upon his arrival in New York.
Pending the trial, Bankman-Fried was positioned beneath home arrest on the Silicon Valley dwelling of his dad and mom, each professors at Stanford College.
However US District Decide Lewis Kaplan rescinded that call, ordering Bankman-Fried behind bars over alleged makes an attempt of witness intimidation.
In line with prosecutors, whereas holed up at his mum or dad’s dwelling, Bankman-Fried handed on paperwork to the New York Occasions in an try to affect the testimony of Caroline Ellison, his ex-girlfriend and a former Alameda government.
She has additionally been indicted within the case and has agreed to cooperate with the US authorities, together with three different former executives.
They’re anticipated to take the stand in his six-week trial – the place Bankman-Fried will seemingly admit egregious administration errors however no wrongdoing, and level the finger at Ellison.
“If the prosecutors can do a very good job explaining that individuals invested cash, the truth that it is crypto will not actually make a distinction,” mentioned Julia Jayne, a California lawyer specialising in white-collar crime.
A protracted weblog publish that Bankman-Fried had deliberate to publish on the social community X, revealed by the Occasions earlier than he was taken into custody, provided clues to his defence technique.
In it, he presents himself, as he has accomplished prior to now, as an overworked boss – unable to depend on his incompetent or disinterested groups – who let himself be overtaken by exterior circumstances.
