The prosecution accuses Bankman-Fried, among other things, of misleading investors and embezzling client funds on a large scale in his crypto empire that collapsed nearly two months ago. The 30-year-old admits his mistakes, but denies any intention to cheat. He faces up to 115 years in prison if convicted of all eight crimes.
Bankman-Fried was arrested on Dec. 12 by order of US law enforcement in the Bahamas, where FTX, one of the largest trading platforms for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, was headquartered before the collapse. Other former FTX senior executives pleaded guilty and heavily blamed the group’s founder.
Bankman-Fried was released on $250 million bail after extradition to the United States. However, in US cases, only a portion of the bail amount is usually required to be deposited. Bankman-Fried said he only had about $100,000 left in November. According to US media, he was brought home as collateral for his parents’ bail application, two professors at the US elite university Stanford.
Bankman Fried’s FTX group collapsed in a matter of days in October amid massive withdrawals of funds following liquidity concerns. Billions of client funds could not be paid. Bankman-Fried, newly named SBF in the crypto industry, resigned on November 11 and filed for bankruptcy for the group in the US state of Delaware. Recently, authorities in the Bahamas had frozen company funds.
There are also civil and class action lawsuits against the FTX founder in the United States. A spectacular crash: Just a few months ago, the young entrepreneur graced the front pages of US business magazines as a crypto genius. Before the FTX bankruptcy, Forbes and Bloomberg once estimated his fortune to exceed $26 billion.
(SDA)