Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of crypto empire FTX, pleaded not guilty to fraud and money laundering charges during a court appearance on Tuesday. The new indictment accuses Bankman-Fried of using customer funds for personal real estate purchases and political donations. The defense team has requested that Bankman-Fried be allowed to meet with his attorneys and use internet-enabled laptops at the U.S. Attorney’s office every weekday. Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled that Bankman-Fried could meet with his attorneys until 3:00 p.m. EDT today at the office, but has not yet weighed in on the broader request. Prosecutors have asked the court to order Bankman-Fried’s defense team to share more information about his proposed advice-of-counsel defense. The judge set a Wednesday deadline for the defense to share more information. Bankman-Fried’s trial is currently set to begin in early October.
The charges are from the original indictment filed last December, but fold a campaign finance charge into other allegations after prosecutors said they couldn’t explicitly bring the charge due to treaty obligations with the Bahamas, said the court.