Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, otherwise known as SBF, will enter a plea on January 3, 2023, regarding the criminal charges filed against him in the aftermath of the FTX collapse.
The latest development comes shortly after the former crypto boss was released on bail following his arrest and extradition to the United States.
According to Reuters on Wednesday (December 28, 2022), SBF will be arraigned before Manhattan federal court on January 3, 2023. As previously reported by CryptoPotato, Bankman-Fried was arrested by Bahamian Authorities on December 12 and was later extradited to the United States.
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The former FTX boss is facing multiple charges from US federal regulators, with prosecutors also slamming eight criminal charges against SBF. While Bankman-Fried is yet to plead guilty to any of the charges, his associates, FTX co-founder Gary Wang and former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison, pleaded guilty to crimes such as securities fraud and money laundering.
Apparently, the crypto wallets associated with now-bankrupt trading firm Alameda Research, the sister company of FTX, were seen transferring out funds just days after the former CEO Sam Bankman Fried was released on a $250 million bond. CoinTelegraph reports: The transfer of funds from Alameda wallets raised community curiosity, but more than that, the way in which these funds were transferred grabbed the community’s attention. The Alameda wallet was found to be swapping bits of ERC-20s for Ether/Tether, and then the ETH and USDT were funneled through instant exchangers and mixers. For example, a wallet address that starts with 0x64e9 received over 600 ETH from wallets that belong to Alameda, part of it was swapped to USDT while the other part of the transaction was sent to ChangeNow.
On-chain analyst ZachXBT noted that the Alameda wallet was eventually swapping the funds for Bitcoin using decentralized exchanges such as FixedFloat and ChangeNow. These platforms are often used by hackers and exploiters to hide their transaction routes. Many speculated that the pattern in which these funds are being swapped looks like an exploiter, but given Bankman-Fried’s known criminal past now, many speculated it could be an insider job to take out whatever is left in those wallets. Others questioned the bail conditions and asked why was he given access to the internet. One user wrote that the former CEO was “desperately trying to funnel money out,” adding, “why did his bail condition include no computer/internet access?”
https://twitter.com/alkwater9ph/status/1607922033945415680?s=20&t=Sb41yNB6RPQLnxQckVAgIw
SBF was recently granted a $250 million bail and will live with his parents in Palo Alto, California while wearing an electronic monitoring bracelet. Recall that FTX filed for bankruptcy in the middle of October, shortly after SBF assured that the company is doing just fine and had no solvency issues. Since then, reports continue to emerge, shedding more light on the fraudulent schemes the FTX and Alameda execs were running for years.