Sam Bankman-Fried pleads not guilty to fraud and other charges

These claims started circulating after crypto experts noticed digital accounts associated with Alameda were transferring funds. The movement of money was visible because cryptocurrency transactions are recorded on a public ledger that anyone can access and analyze.

In court, Ms Sassoon said prosecutors were investigating the transfers. “While we don’t know if it was the defendant who made these transfers, he had access to these wallets at some point,” she said.

Mr. Cohen denied that Mr. Bankman-Fried made the transfers.

Ms Sassoon also alluded to a jurisdictional battle between the new management of FTX, which oversees the bankruptcy process in the United States, and the Bahamian government. She said Mr Bankman-Fried helped foreign regulators secure FTX assets and expressed an intention to “block” the US bankruptcy process.

Since allowing FTX to file for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, Mr. Bankman-Fried has repeatedly said he regrets the decision. As Ms Sassoon spoke, the FTX founder looked flustered, shaking his head and scribbling a note to his lawyer. Mr. Cohen told the judge that the transfer to regulators that Ms. Sassoon was describing was ordered by a court in the Bahamas.

Judge Kaplan was appointed a week ago to preside over Mr Bankman-Fried’s case after the original judge, Ronnie Abrams, said she was recusing herself because the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell, where her husband is a partner, had worked for FTX. in 2021. Although her husband was not involved in this performance, she said, she was stepping down to “avoid any possible conflict, or the appearance of a conflict”.

Prosecutors have vowed to continue the investigation, and it is possible that other executives in Mr. Bankman-Fried’s orbit will be charged. On Tuesday, Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced the creation of an FTX Special Task Force made up of prosecutors from units in his office that investigate securities fraud, public corruption, money laundering and transnational crimes. The task force will be led by Andrea Griswold, the US Attorney’s chief counsel.

Liset Cruz contributed report.