Nearly two weeks after he was released by a Manhattan judge on a $250 million bond and ordered to stay with his parents in Palo Alto, Calif., Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced cryptocurrency executive, returned to New York and pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to charges that he engaged in widespread fraud and other crimes.
Mr. Bankman-Fried, 30, appeared in Federal District Court, where he faces a trial on charges that his fraud led to the collapse of FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange he founded, and billions of dollars in customer losses.
Mr. Bankman-Fried was arrested on Dec. 12 at his luxury apartment in the Bahamas, where FTX was based until its bankruptcy in November. After Mr. Bankman-Fried was extradited the following week to the United States, he appeared in court on Dec. 22, where he was granted bail under highly restrictive conditions.
An eight-count indictment charges him with a multiyear scheme that defrauded customers and lenders, and that he had conspired to violate federal campaign finance laws. Prosecutors have accused him of misappropriating billions in customer funds for other uses, like buying real estate in the Bahamas, trading cryptocurrencies, investing in other crypto companies and making tens of millions of dollars in campaign donations.
This is a developing news story and will be updated.
Liset Cruz contributed reporting.
