Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of the defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX, is allegedly set to enter a not-guilty plea on January 3.
Bankman-Fried is scheduled to appear before US District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan, New York, on eight charges, including securities fraud and money laundering, brought by the US Attorney for the Southern District.
In December, in the midst of his fraud and other criminal charges trial, Bankman-Fried was freed on a $250 million bail, “the biggest pretrial bond in history.”
As part of the bail deal, Bankman-Fried is required to wear an “electronic monitoring bracelet” and undergo “mental health counseling” in addition to travel restrictions outside the city.
Meanwhile, the Bahamian government has confiscated $3.5 billion worth of FTX digital assets.
Soon after the crypto exchange filed for bankruptcy in the US in November, reports indicated that the assets were seized by the country’s Securities Commission.
In a statement, the Securities Commission of The Bahamas said it had taken the action of directing the transfer of all digital assets under the custody or control of FTXDM (FTX Digital Markets Ltd) or its principals to digital wallets controlled by the Commission, with a total value of more than $3.5 billion based on market pricing at the time of transfer.
It said, “While certain token protocols may require the burning of old tokens and the simultaneous minting of new replacement tokens to effect transfer, in no case, did the process involve the creation of any additional tokens.”
The regulator “determined that there was a significant risk of imminent dissipation as to the digital assets in the custody or control of FTXDM to the prejudice of its customers and creditors”.
