Disgraced crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried is trying to convince a federal court in Manhattan to dismiss most of the criminal charges against him related to the collapse of FTX.
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As per a report from Reuters, Bankman-Fried's lawyers were portraying the now-bankrupt crypto exchange as a victim of the so-called crypto winter in 2022, saying prosecutors charged their client in a "rush to judgment." The defense claims the government "jumped in with both feet, improperly seeking to turn these civil and regulatory issues into federal crimes."
Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to eight charges. Federal prosecutors believe the disgraced crypto entrepreneur orchestrated a fraud that led to the collapse of the exchange. The government also alleges Bankman-Fried misappropriated billions of dollars in customer deposits though his own hedge fund — Alameda Research.
FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US last year. According to court documents, the now-bankrupt trading platform owes its users around $10 billion and has over 1 million creditors.
In March 2023, the FTX debtors revealed that before going bankrupt, the collapsed exchange had sent a total of $3.2 billion to former top managers, including Sam Bankman-Fried, Nishad Singh, Zixiao "Gary" Wang and Carolina Ellison.
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