Sam Bankman-Fried pleads not guilty to several new charges

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Founder of a bankruptCryptocurrency exchange FTX has pleaded not guilty to several charges, including bribery of Chinese authorities and conspiracy to violate campaign finance laws.

Sam Bankman-Fried has not previouslypleaded guilty to eight charges of fraud. He awaits trial in New York in October. With the addition of charges of violating campaign finance laws and bribing Chinese government officials, Bankman-Fried now faces 13 counts.

Along with accusations of fraud,US prosecutors in February charged Bankman-Fried with making illegal political donations. Bankman-Fried is accused of attempting to bribe one or more Chinese government officials with approximately $40 million worth of cryptocurrency in an attempt to unfreeze certain Alameda Research accounts.

Bankman-Fried's lawyer, Mark Cohen, said he plans to fight the new charges because they were brought after the FTX founder's extradition from the Bahamas.

Bankman-Fried was arrested in December 2022.He was later released on $250 million bail. As part of his bail conditions, he was given a phone without Internet access and a laptop that can only access approved websites.

Although Bankman-Fried deniesAccording to prosecutors, former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang pleaded guilty to fraud. In February, FTX CTO Nishad Singh also pleaded guilty to money laundering through the financing of political campaigns.