Sam Bankman-Fried, whose cryptocrrency empire collapsed in November, is expected to plead not guilty to charges of bribery and campaign law violations made against the founder of the FTX crypto exchange, Reuters reported Thursday, citing a person familiar with the matter. On Tuesday, a federal grand jury had added a 13-count indictment that accused Bankman-Fried of authorizing the transfer of $40M in crypto intended for one or more Chinese officials to regain access to assets, amounting to more than $1B in crypto held by FTX sister firm Alameda Research, which had been frozen by China. That added to eight counts of fraud and conspiracy for allegedly stealing from FTX customer funds in his original indictment , followed by 12 more counts for alleged bank fraud, unlawful political contributions, and unlicensed money transmitting in a February indictment. The new charges mean Bankman-Fried could face decades in prison if convicted, Reuters said. His trial is scheduled to start Oct. 2, 2023. He is currently confined in his parents' home in Palo Alto, California, on $250M bond pending trial. The 31-year-old founder of FTX has already pleaded not guilty to eight counts of fraud and conspiracy for allegedly stealing billions in FTX customer funds. In December, two key FTX and Alameda Research employees — Gary Wang and Caroline Ellison, agreed to plead guilty to federal fraud charges in a cooperation deal with the Southern District of New York. Last month, another Bankman-Fried associate Nishad Singh, FTX's former director of engineering, pleaded guilty to fraud charges .
