Sam Bankman-Fried pleads not guilty to 8 counts of charges

NEW YORK: Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, has pleaded not guilty to fraud and money laundering charges.

Bankman-Fried, also known as SBF, appeared at Manhattan federal court in New York City, and pleaded not guilty to eight criminal charges he's facing, CNBC reported late on Tuesday.

The court has tentatively set a start date for the trial on October 2, 2022, "after US prosecutors said they expect to produce all evidence for the case in the next four weeks".

Bankman-Fried arrived in a black SUV at the court and was swarmed by media persons.

The judge said Bankman-Fried is not allowed to access FTX or Alameda assets anymore.

The judge also agreed to a request from Bankman-Fried's lawyers to keep private the identities of two people, other than his parents, who helped secure SBF's bail, saying his parents have been targeted by threats and harassment.

Bankman-Fried was released on a $250 million bond, "the largest-ever pretrial bond", in December.

As part of the bond agreement, Bankman-Fried will wear an "electronic monitoring bracelet" and submit to "mental health counselling" amid restrictions on travelling out of the city.

The US attorney's office for the Southern District of New York had argued that Bankman-Fried used $8 billion worth of customer assets for "extravagant real estate purchases and vanity projects".

Two close friends of the former FTX CEO have also pleaded guilty to federal charges.

Caroline Ellison and Zixiao "Gary" Wang, two executives in the bankrupt crypto exchange FTC, pleaded guilty.

The guilty pleas were related to their roles as insiders at FTX and its sister company Alameda Research.