(Kitco News) -
Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried will appear before a judge in New York next week to enter a plea and face criminal charges. Bankman-Fried is scheduled to be arraigned on Jan. 3 before U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan federal court, according to court records shared Wednesday.
Kaplan was assigned to the case just yesterday after Ronnie Abrams, the judge originally selected to preside over the trial, was forced to recuse herself when it emerged that her husband's law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell had advised FTX in 2021 when SBF was still CEO.
Bankman-Fried was granted bail following his first appearance before a U.S. judge on Dec. 22. He was released on a $250 million bail bond, and is confined to his parents’ home in Palo Alto, California, which is also backing the bail bond. The bail decision was made just 14 hours after SBF touched down on U.S. soil after being extradited from the Bahamas.
FTX and Alameda Research, together with around 130 other corporate entities, filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy on Nov. 11. Bankman-Fried also submitted his resignation at that time, with John Ray III being appointed as the new CEO of FTX Group.
Former FTX and Alameda senior executives Gary Wang and Caroline Ellison have already pled guilty to fraud and are cooperating with authorities. U.S. Attorney Damian Williams posted a brief video announcement on Dec. 21 announcing the guilty pleas by Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research, and Wang, who co-founded FTX with Sam Bankman-Fried.
“Both Ms. Ellison and Mr. Wang have pled guilty to [fraud] charges, and they are both cooperating with the Southern District of New York,” Williams said.
On Dec.12, the Justice Department announced that they were charging Bankman-Fried with multiple crimes including wire fraud, commodities fraud, money laundering and campaign finance violations, the penalties for which could total 115 years in prison.
