An appeals court in the United States has upheld a decision to revoke former cryptocurrency billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried’s bail and hold him in custody pending trial. Bankman-Fried is accused of fraud stemming from the November 2022 collapse of his now-bankrupt FTX exchange and is due to go on trial on October 3. In a written decision, a three-judge panel of the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said it agreed with US District Judge Lewis Kaplan’s finding that Bankman-Fried had probably attempted to tamper with two witnesses. This included his sharing the personal writings of Caroline Ellison, the former chief executive of his Alameda Research hedge fund, with a New York Times reporter. Ellison has pleaded guilty to fraud and is expected to testify against Bankman-Fried, a former romantic partner. In her writings, she described feeling “unhappy and overwhelmed” with her job and “hurt/rejected” after the end of her relationship with Bankman-Fried. Kaplan had revoked Bankman-Fried’s $250m bail on August 11. The three judges on Thursday said they were unpersuaded by Bankman-Fried’s argument that Kaplan failed to credit the defendant for exercising his First Amendment constitutional right to speak with the press and try to restore his reputation. They wrote that Kaplan “correctly determined that when a person engages in speech to commit a criminal offence such as witness tampering, that speech falls outside the zone of constitutional protection”. Bankman-Fried faces seven charges of fraud and conspiracy stemming from the collapse of FTX, the now-bankrupt crypto exchange he […]

Sam Bankman-Fried, the indicted founder of now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, may face a “very long sentence” if convicted at his fraud trial starting next week, the judge overseeing the case said on Thursday. United States District Judge Lewis Kaplan’s comments came just before he denied the 31-year-old former billionaire’s request to be released from jail temporarily during the trial to better help his lawyers mount his defense case. Kaplan said Bankman-Fried was a flight risk. “Your client in the event of conviction could be looking at a very long sentence,” Kaplan said in a hearing in Manhattan federal court. “If things begin to look bleak … maybe the time would come when he would seek to flee.” Mark Cohen, Bankman-Fried’s lawyer, said there was “nothing in the record” to suggest that his client would try to flee. He said Bankman-Fried had voluntarily consented to extradition from the Bahamas – where FTX was based – to the US after his December 2022 arrest. Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to seven counts of fraud and conspiracy stemming from FTX’s collapse in November 2022. He faces a statutory maximum of 110 years in prison, though any sentence would be determined by Kaplan based on a range of factors and he would likely get far less. His lawyers asked Kaplan for temporary release earlier this week, arguing they could not speak with him after each trial day to prepare for the next day’s witnesses and testimony, which they could not do if he were […]

The trial of disgraced crypto tycoon Sam Bankman-Fried is set to open on October 3 in New York after a whirlwind year. Since the collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange FTX and its partner hedge fund Alameda Research in November last year, ex-CEO Bankman-Fried was quickly investigated by federal prosecutors and the United States Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) before he was extradited from the Bahamas in early January. Bankman-Fried now faces multiple money laundering and fraud charges, but prosecutors also allege that he used his $32bn empire to influence the US political establishment, Hollywood and even Chinese officials. Initially allowed to live with his parents in California on a $250m bail, that privilege was revoked after he was accused of witness tampering in August, and he has been lodged in a Brooklyn jail since. What are the charges against Bankman Fried? As he heads into court tomorrow, Bankman-Fried, 31, faces seven counts of wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering or conspiracy to commit these crimes. Prosecutors will also present evidence that Bankman-Fried violated campaign finance laws as ​​he used stolen funds to pay for $100m in political donations. If found guilty, Bankman-Fried faces over 100 years in federal prison, where inmates do not get massive sentence reductions for “good behaviour”. Following further investigation, Bankman-Fried is now facing a second trial in March 2024 on five additional charges. Among them is an allegation that Bankman-Fried violated the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act by paying a $40m bribe to one or more […]

Sam Bankman-Fried’s fraud trial, which kicked off on Tuesday in the United States, marks the culmination of a yearlong legal saga stemming from the dramatic collapse of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange he founded. The trial, expected to last about six weeks, comes nearly a year after FTX’s collapse shocked markets and tattered Bankman-Fried’s reputation. Selection of the panel of 12 jurors and six alternates is set to continue on Wednesday, followed by opening statements. Here is a timeline of key events leading up to the 31-year-old former billionaire’s trial. 2017 Bankman-Fried, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate, quits his job as a quantitative trader at Jane Street Capital and launches Alameda Research, a trading firm focused on cryptocurrency. May 2019 Bankman-Fried and former Google employee Gary Wang found FTX as a new platform to trade crypto tokens and derivatives. October 2021 FTX raises $420m in venture funding, valuing the company at $25bn. Bankman-Fried debuts on the Forbes billionaires list, which estimates his net worth at $22.5bn. The magazine’s assessment of his wealth would rise to $26bn by the end of the year. February 2022 The NFL Super Bowl’s broadcast is heavy on cryptocurrency advertisements, signifying the height of the craze for the booming asset class. FTX’s “Don’t Miss Out” spot features actor Larry David, whose scepticism about the platform is portrayed as akin to an early human doubting the importance of the wheel. June-July 2022 Bankman-Fried emerges as the cryptocurrency sector’s so-called “white knight” amid a collapse in the prices […]

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has admitted to making mistakes but denied defrauding customers while testifying in his own defence at his high-profile fraud trial in New York. Bankman-Fried said on Friday that a “lot of people got hurt” when FTX collapsed last year, but he had never set out to steal from people. “We thought that we might be able to build the best product on the market,” Bankman-Fried said during six hours of testimony in a Manhattan federal court. “It turned out basically the opposite of that.” Under questioning from his lawyer, Bankman-Fried depicted himself as a bumbling visionary who was swamped with work and knew little about the cryptocurrency industry before founding FTX in 2019. “I made a number of small mistakes and a number of large mistakes,” he said. “By far, the biggest mistake was that we didn’t have a team dedicated to risk management.” Bankman-Fried, once one of the most feted figures in cryptocurrency, is alleged to have used FTX funds for risky trading by his hedge fund Alameda Research. The former billionaire has been charged with seven counts of fraud, embezzlement and criminal conspiracy, and could face decades in prison if convicted. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges. On Friday, Bankman-Fried, who has blamed ex-colleagues for FTX’s sudden implosion, took aim at his ex-business partner and former girlfriend Caroline Ellison, who testified on behalf of the prosecution. Bankman-Fried said he had instructed Ellison to ensure that Alameda hedge itself financially against a possible […]

The United States has linked North Korean hackers to a multi-million dollar cryptocurrency heist last month focusing on players of the popular Axie Infinity game. The March hack of Blockchain project Ronin was one of the biggest to hit the crypto world, raising huge questions about security in an industry that only recently burst into the mainstream thanks to celebrity promotions and promises of untold wealth. The Ronin network allows users to transfer crypto in and out of the game. “Through our investigations we were able to confirm Lazarus Group and APT38, cyber actors associated with [North Korea], are responsible for the theft,” the FBI said in a statement. Lazarus rose to prominence in 2014 when it was accused of hacking into Sony Pictures Entertainment as revenge for “The Interview,” a satirical film that mocked North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. It has also been accused of involvement in the “WannaCry” ransomware attacks, as well as hacking international banks and customer accounts. “The United States is aware that the DPRK has increasingly relied on illicit activities – including cybercrime – to generate revenue for its weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs as it tries to evade robust US and UN sanctions,” a Treasury Department spokesperson said, using the initials of North Korea’s official name. North Korea’s hacking programme dates back to at least the mid-1990s and has grown to a 6,000-strong cyber warfare unit, known as Bureau 121, that operates from several countries, including Belarus, China, India, Malaysia […]