A US federal judge on Friday canceled the test and ordered the arrest of the founder of cryptocurrency platform FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, for attempting to influence a witness in the fraudulent process he faces. Prosecutors argued during a bail hearing for Sam Bankman-Fried (better known as SBF) that the FTX founder was following a “pattern of witness influence.”
Prosecutors accused the SBF, 31, of transmitting documents to the New York Times in an effort to influence the testimony of Caroline Ellison, a former executive at his investment firm Alameda, who was also charged and agreed to cooperate with US authorities. American. Judge Lewis Kaplan agreed with those arguments and ordered the SBF’s arrest, CNN reported, citing the Associated Press (AP).
The founder of FTX was arrested in December 2022 and indicted by a US court on seven counts that include fraud and money laundering, among others, for allegedly diverting millions of dollars from FTX clients for other purposes. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleges that Bankman-Fried orchestrated a fraudulent scheme over the years to conceal FTX investors from transferring client funds to Alameda Research.
SBF was provisionally released after posting a $250 million bond, one of the highest in US history. The American has pleaded not guilty to all charges over the course of months, and his trial is scheduled to begin in October in New York.
In December, two SBF associates, Caroline Ellison, former CEO of Alameda Research, the company founded by Bankman-Fried and the investment arm of FTX, and FTX co-founder Gary Wang, pleaded guilty to charges “related to a role in a fraud that contributed to to the collapse of the company.
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