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

The founder of collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, who was released on $250 million bail, has returned to New York for appear in court on Tuesday.

Nearly two weeks after he was released by a Manhattan judge on $250 million bail and ordered to stay with his parents in Palo Alto, Calif., disgraced cryptocurrency executive Sam Bankman-Fried returned to New York and pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to widespread fraud charges, paving the way for a possible trial.

Mr. Bankman-Fried, 30, appeared in federal district court in Manhattan, where he faces charges stemming from the implosion of FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange he founded and ran. Its collapse resulted in billions of dollars in lost customers.

Mr. Bankman-Fried could ultimately change his mind and plead guilty to at least some of the charges. But his initial response sparks a potentially titanic legal battle. Judge Lewis A. Kaplan has set a tentative trial date for Oct. 2.

Mr. Bankman-Fried did not speak at the hearing and the plea of ​​not guilty was entered on his behalf by one of his lawyers, Mark Cohen. Throughout the hearing, which lasted about half an hour, Mr. Bankman-Fried, dressed in a dark jacket and tie, sat between his two lawyers, sometimes scribbling notes and leaning to consult one of them.

The hearing was the last step in an exceptionally quick investigation. Mr. Bankman-Fried was arrested on December 12 at his luxury apartment in the Bahamas, where FTX was based until he filed for bankruptcy in November.

An eight count indictment charged him with a multi-year scheme that defrauded customers and lenders, and violations of federal campaign finance laws. Prosecutors accused him of embezzling billions to buy real estate in the Bahamas, exchange digital currencies, invest in other crypto companies and make tens of millions of dollars in campaign donations.

After Mr. Bankman-Fried was extradited to the United States at the end of December, he appeared in court and was released on bail under very restrictive conditions, including the rule that he must remain confined to his parents' home in Palo Alto.

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">During Tuesday's hearing, prosecutors requested a new bail condition prohibiting Mr. Bankman-Fried to transfer funds controlled by FTX or Alameda Research, a crypto hedge fund he also founded.

The request came in response to claims that circulated last week that Mr. Bankman-Fried was transferring from s cryptocurrencies from digital accounts controlled by Alameda.

Mr. Bankman-Fried denied the reports on Twitter. In court, Danielle Sassoon, an assistant U.S. attorney, said prosecutors had no evidence Mr Bankman-Fried moved the funds himself, but they had reason to be suspicious of his public statements.

"We're not talking about it simply because our investigation revealed that he once tweeted knowing misrepresentations," she said.

Judge Kaplan authorized the bail condition.

The judge also accepted a request from the lawyers of Mr. Bankman-Fried to keep secret the names of two people who, along with the FTX founder's parents, had agreed to sign bonds to help secure his appearance in court.

In a letter filed with the judge on Tuesday morning, the lawyers noted that Mr. Bankman-Fried parents - the