On January 3rd, Bankman-Fried will stand before newly appointed Judge Lewis Kaplan.
Sam Bankman-Fried, a cryptocurrency exchange FTX co-founder and former CEO, is set to enter a plea on six counts of conspiracy and two counts of wire fraud.
According to the news report shared by Reuters, the former CEO will appear before US District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan federal court on the afternoon of January 3rd.
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It is worth noting that Judge Kaplan was assigned to the case on December 27th. The move came after the original judge, Ronnie Abrams, resigned from the case as her husband was a partner of the Davis Polk & Wardwell law firm. In 2021, the law firm provided advisory services to the crypto exchange FTX.
Judge Lewis Kaplan is known for his swift decisions and straightforward manner. The man has been working as a judge since 1994 and has overseen several high-profile trials and several financial crime-related cases.
The former FTX Chief Executive Officer is charged with wire fraud, campaign finance violations and money laundering. On top of that, the authorities believe that Sam Bankman-Fried used FTX and his crypto trading firm Alameda Research to steal billions of dollars from customers and investors.
The man was arrested on December 12th by the Royal Bahamas Police Force and was held in Nassau Fox Hill Prison. The arrest was made following a request from the authorities in the United States. The Fox Hill Prison is known for overcrowding and unsanitary conditions.
On December 13th, Judge JoyAnn Ferguson-Pratt at the Bahamas Magistrate Court denied Sam Bankman-Fried’s request for bail, leaving him in prison until February 8th 2023. However, it appears that SBF didn’t like that idea.
On December 20th, the man reportedly agreed to be extradited to the United States and signed the final documents on December 21st. A day later, the man was released from jail after his parents secured the bail with the equity in their home in Palo Alto, California.
