Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to all eight counts of fraud with which he has been charged.
At his arraignment hearing in Manhattan on Tuesday, Bankman-Fried entered a not guilty plea to the charges against him, including wire fraud, violations of campaign finance laws and securities fraud.
Bankman-Fried appeared in court with his lawyers Mark Cohen and Christian Everdell before U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan. U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon, who leads the prosecution, said her team plans to provide Bankman-Fried’s lawyers with documents of evidence over the next two weeks.
Judge Kaplan set Bankman-Fried’s trial date for Oct. 2, which Sassoon expects to be a four-week trial, according to a report from Reuters. If convicted, the FTX founder could face up to 115 years in prison.
In the same hearing, Judge Kaplan granted a request from Bankman-Fried’s lawyers that the names of two individuals that helped secure his bail be redacted from public records. His parents allegedly received a number of threats and became the subject of media scrutiny and harassment.
Bankman-Fried was released on a $250 million bail bond package which allows him to remain under house arrest at his parents’ home in California. Under the terms of his bail, Bankman-Fried will remain under digital monitoring, but is allowed to go outside for exercise, have visitors and access the internet.
His unrestricted access to the internet in particular raised alarm bells after a series of mysterious transfers from Alameda-controlled wallets – one of which was identified as Bankman-Fried’s wallet address – were made to crypto mixers last week. Bankman-Fried refuted claims that he was behind these transfers in a tweet, saying he did not have any access to them.
Judge Kaplan amended the conditions of Bankman-Fried’s bail on Tuesday to specifically prohibit him from accessing and transferring any FTX or Alameda associated assets.
