By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com -- FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried reportedly is likely to plead not guilty to eight criminal counts of fraud at a court hearing next week, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday, citing an unnamed source.
Bankman-Fried, or SBF as he is widely known, was released on a $250 million bail, following a deal agreed upon by his attorneys and federal prosecutors.
FTX, once valued at $32B, filed for bankruptcy last month after struggling to secure emergency funding to plug an $8B hole.
Bankman-Fried has been accused of transferring customer funds to cover up trading losses at Alameda Research, a trading firm founded by SBF.
Gary Wang, chief technology officer of FTX, and Caroline Ellison, co-CEO of Alameda Research, who were both close associates of SBF, have pleaded guilty to federal charges of fraud.
Ellison has said that she and Bankman-Fried knowingly misled lenders about the misuse of customer money.
"From 2019 through 2022, I was aware that Alameda was provided access to a borrowing facility on FTX.com, the cryptocurrency exchange run by Mr. Bankman-Fried," Ellison said, according to a transcript of her Dec. 19 hearing.