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Federal prosecutors seized nearly $700 million in cash and assets connected to Sam Bankman-Fried, primarily in the form of Robinhood shares that were owned by the FTX founder, a court filing revealed Friday. Bankman-Fried was arrested on criminal fraud charges in December and is released on a $250 million bond as he awaits trial. Federal prosecutors have alleged that the Robinhood shares were purchased using allegedly stolen customer funds. Bankman-Fried has denied misappropriating customer assets. Those three Binance accounts were the only seized assets that did not have values attached to them.

☆ Trump loses bid to dismiss rape accuser's second defamation lawsuit
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

NEW YORK, Jan 13 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Friday rejected Donald Trump's bid to dismiss writer E. Jean Carroll's second lawsuit accusing the former U.S. president of defamation for denying he raped her in the mid-1990s. He also rejected Trump's argument that Carroll's battery claim under New York's Adult Survivors Act must be dismissed because the law denied him due process under the state's constitution. Lawyers for Trump did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Carroll's lawyers did not immediately respond to similar requests. Carroll has accused Trump of raping her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in late 1995 or early 1996.

NEW YORK, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Eight major media outlets on Thursday asked the U.S. judge overseeing Sam Bankman-Fried's criminal case to make public the names of two people who helped guarantee the FTX cryptocurrency exchange founder's $250 million bond. Saying the public interest "cannot be overstated," lawyers for the outlets, including Reuters, said the public's right to know Bankman-Fried's guarantors outweighed their privacy and safety rights. Media seeking to identify Bankman-Fried's sureties also include the Associated Press, Bloomberg, CNBC, Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones, the Financial Times, Insider and the Washington Post. Cohen and Everdell also represented Maxwell in her criminal case. In seeking to keep the sureties' names under wraps, Bankman-Fried's lawyers said their client's parents, who co-signed the $250 million bond, had been harassed and received physical threats since FTX's early November collapse and bankruptcy.

☆ Who are the two people who helped bail out Sam Bankman-Fried? Insider and other media organizations are asking a judge to unveil the secret
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Jacob Shamsian | Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

News organizations, including Insider, are asking a court to unveil Sam Bankman-Fried's bail backers. Bankman-Fried's lawyers told the court earlier this month that the backers of his release should stay secret for their "privacy and safety." At Bankman-Fried's January 3 arraignment hearing, Kaplan had granted a request from Bankman-Fried's lawyers to keep the names and addresses of those two people under seal. Christian Everdell, one of Bankman-Fried's lawyers, also represented Maxwell in her criminal case. But lawyers representing the media organizations said the cases were significantly different.

☆ Who are the 2 people who helped bail out Sam Bankman-Fried? Insider and other news organizations asked a judge to unseal their names.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Jacob Shamsian | Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

News organizations, including Insider, are asking a court to unveil Sam Bankman-Fried's bail backers. Bankman-Fried's lawyers told the court earlier this month that the backers of his release should stay secret for their "privacy and safety." The two other backers sponsored "separate bonds in lesser amounts," according to a court filing earlier this month by Bankman-Fried's lawyers. At Bankman-Fried's January 3 arraignment hearing, Kaplan had granted a request from Bankman-Fried's lawyers to keep the names and addresses of those two people under seal. Christian Everdell, one of Bankman-Fried's lawyers, also represented Maxwell in her criminal case.

Former FTX chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried (C) arrives to enter a plea before US District Judge Lewis Kaplan in the Manhattan federal court, New York, January 3, 2023. In a Thursday morning Substack post, FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried denied allegations that he stole billions in user funds and suggested that Binance CEO Changpeng "CZ" Zhao conducted a monthslong effort to bring down FTX. It is Bankman-Fried's first significant response to federal allegations that he directed an $8 billion fraud that destroyed his $32 billion crypto conglomerate. In the beginning of 2022, for example, Bankman-Fried says he estimated Alameda's total net assets at $99 billion. By October, he believed that his hedge fund's net assets had fallen to $10 billion.

☆ Trump is headed to court Tuesday to argue that presidents can't be sued for defamation. Here's what's at stake.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Ashley Collman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

An appeals court is set to weigh in on E. Jean Carroll's defamation suit against Donald Trump. Trump and the DOJ argue that he can't be personally sued for statements he made in office. Carroll sued Trump for defamation in November 2019, saying her career suffered "as a direct result of Trump's defamatory statements." Seth Wenig/APThe Westfall Act protects government employees from being sued for actions in the line of their work. Because he made those comments after leaving the White House, he won't be able to claim Westfall Act protection.

☆ U.S. prosecutors launch website for Bankman-Fried alleged fraud victims
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Luc Cohen | Thomson Reuters | Reports On The New York Federal Courts. Previously Worked As A Correspondent In Venezuela | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

NEW YORK, Jan 6 (Reuters) - The U.S. government plans to launch a website for victims of FTX cryptocurrency exchange founder Sam Bankman-Fried's alleged fraud to communicate with law enforcement. In court papers filed on Friday, federal prosecutors in Manhattan asked U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan for permission to use the website to notify victims, rather than contacting each individually. Federal law requires prosecutors to contact possible crime victims to inform them of their rights, including the rights to obtain restitution, be heard in court and be protected from defendants. Kaplan has yet to rule on the request, but the website had gone live by Friday afternoon. Bankman-Fried, 30, has pleaded not guilty to eight counts of wire fraud and conspiracy over November's collapse of FTX.

☆ Sam Bankman-Fried Pleads Not Guilty as Trial Is Set for October
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Corinne Ramey | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to fraud and other criminal charges Tuesday, as a judge set his trial to begin Oct. 2. Mr. Bankman-Fried, 30 years old, entered his not-guilty plea to all eight criminal counts he faces before U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in federal court in Manhattan. It was his second appearance in a U.S. court after the collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange.

The government will give documents and evidence to Bankman-Fried’s lawyers in a process known as discovery. Prosecutors said on Tuesday that they have hundreds of thousands of documents with more on the way as they continue gathering evidence. Discovery can take months, particularly if disputes arise over what evidence the defense is entitled to see ahead of trial. Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams has said his office will continue to make announcements as its probe widens. Criminal defendants can change their plea at any time, and their lawyers often negotiate with prosecutors over a possible plea deal.

☆ Sam Bankman-Fried Pleads Not Guilty to Fraud and Other Offenses
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Corinne Ramey | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to fraud and other criminal charges Tuesday, as a judge set his trial to begin Oct. 2. Mr. Bankman-Fried, 30 years old, entered his not guilty plea to all eight criminal counts he faces before U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in federal court in Manhattan. It was his second appearance in a U.S. court following the collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange.

☆ Judge orders Sam Bankman-Fried to be blocked from accessing or transferring any FTX or Alameda assets
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | Jacob Shamsian | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Sam Bankman-Fried denied any role in the recently reported transfers of funds involving Alameda. A federal judge sided with prosecutors and blocked him from accessing Alameda and FTX assets. US district judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over Bankman-Fried's arraignment on Tuesday in which the FTX and Alameda founder pleaded not guilty, granted prosecutors' request to restrain him from such transactions. Kaplan's ruling blocks Bankman-Fried from those transactions, though it allows him to come to an agreement with prosecutors about a possible different arrangement. On Tuesday, Kaplan set October 2 as a date for a trial, though Bankman-Fried could work with prosecutors to negotiate a plea deal before then.

He is scheduled to appear at 2 p.m. EST (1900 GMT) before U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan. Bankman-Fried has admitted to making mistakes running FTX but said he did not believe he was criminally liable. The prosecution case was strengthened by last month's guilty pleas of two of Bankman-Fried's closest associates. Caroline Ellison, who was Alameda's chief executive, and Gary Wang, FTX's former chief technology officer, pleaded guilty to seven and four criminal charges, respectively, and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. Bankman-Fried, Ellison and Wang were also sued by the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

☆ Bahamas regulator sticks to estimate of FTX assets
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Jan 2 (Reuters) - The Securities Commission of the Bahamas (SCB) rebuffed on Monday FTX's claims about the digital assets of its Bahamas unit held by the regulator, saying the debtors of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange had "incomplete information". Last month, the SCB said it had seized more than $3.5 billion in cryptocurrency from the unit, FTX Digital Markets, which it was holding for future repayment to customers and other creditors. FTX disputed SCB's calculations, saying its digital assets seized in November were worth just $296 million and not $3.5 billion. "Such public assertions by the Chapter 11 debtors werebased on incomplete information," the regulator said in a statement on Monday. Bahamas officials have sought access to FTX's records to help liquidate FTX Digital Markets, but the company's U.S. bankruptcy team said it did not trust them with the information.

☆ Feds launch FTX task force to recover victim assets, continue probes as Bankman-Fried pleads not guilty
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Dan Mangan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Former FTX chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried (C) arrives to enter a plea before US District Judge Lewis Kaplan in the Manhattan federal court, New York, January 3, 2023. The Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office said Tuesday it had created an FTX Task Force to trace and recover assets of victims of the cryptocurrency exchange firm's collapse and to handle investigations and prosecutions related to the company and other entities. The announcement came as FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried appeared in U.S. District Court in Manhattan to plead not guilty in his criminal case, where he is charged with multiple counts of financial fraud and campaign finance crimes. "The Southern District of New York is working around the clock to respond to the implosion of FTX," Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. "It is an all-hands-on-deck moment," Williams added.

☆ Sam Bankman-Fried pleads not guilty in the US government's criminal case over FTX crash
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Sindhu Sundar | Jacob Shamsian | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Sam Bankman-Fried entered a plea of not guilty to the fraud and conspiracy charges against him, according to reports. If Bankman-Fried doesn't reach a deal with the government, the case would head to a trial. "Just because he enters a plea of not guilty, it doesn't mean he's not working with prosecutors." How those cases proceed would also depend on the course of the criminal case. A criminal trial, for instance, could help him put civil suits against him on hold.

Bankman-Fried is accused of illegally using FTX customer deposits to support his Alameda Research hedge fund, buy real estate and make millions of dollars in political contributions. He is scheduled to appear at 2 p.m. EST (1900 GMT) on Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan to enter a plea. It is not unusual for criminal defendants to initially plead not guilty. Bankman-Fried has admitted to making mistakes running FTX but said he did not believe he was criminally liable. The prosecution case was strengthened by last month's guilty pleas of two of Bankman-Fried's closest associates.

☆ Bankman-Fried set to enter initial not guilty plea in FTX fraud case -source
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Jack Queen | Industry Insight | Saw Law Firms Move Past The Pandemic Into A More Client-Focused Service Environment | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Bankman-Fried is accused of illegally using FTX customer deposits to support his Alameda Research hedge fund, buy real estate and make millions of dollars in political contributions. He is scheduled to appear at 2 p.m. EST (1900 GMT) on Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan to enter a plea. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate has been charged with two counts of wire fraud and six conspiracy counts, including to launder money and commit campaign finance violations. Bankman-Fried has admitted to making mistakes running FTX but said he did not believe he was criminally liable. Reporting by Jack Queen; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Daniel WallisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Sam Bankman-Fried will enter a plea next week in FTX case, court filings show
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( Jacob Shamsian | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Sam Bankman-Fried is scheduled to enter a plea on January 3. Two of his top lieutenants, including Caroline Ellison, already pleaded guilty to a fraud scheme. download the app Email address By clicking ‘Sign up’, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider as well as other partner offers and accept our Terms of Service and Privacy PolicyFTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is expected to enter a plea at a court hearing next week, court filings show. A docket entry on Wednesday designated it as an arraignment hearing, meaning that Bankman-Fried is now scheduled to enter his plea. On Tuesday, the criminal cases of Bankman-Fried, Ellison, and Wang were assigned to US District Judge Lewis Kaplan.

NEW YORK, Dec 28 (Reuters) - Sam Bankman-Fried is expected to enter a plea next week to criminal charges he defrauded investors and looted billions of dollars in customer funds at his failed FTX cryptocurrency exchange. Kaplan was assigned to the case on Tuesday, after the original judge recused herself because her husband's law firm had advised FTX before its collapse. Before his Dec. 12 arrest, Bankman-Fried acknowledged risk-management failures at FTX, but said he did not believe he was criminally liable. Two of his associates, former Alameda chief executive Caroline Ellison and former FTX chief technology officer Gary Wang, have pleaded guilty over their roles in FTX's collapse and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. Its new chief executive, John Ray, told Congress on Dec. 13 that the exchange lost $8 billion of customer money while being run by "grossly inexperienced, non-sophisticated individuals."

Law firms Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP FollowDec 27 (Reuters) - Sam Bankman-Fried's criminal case over the collapse of his FTX cryptocurrency exchange has been reassigned to a judge recently known for handling defamation lawsuits against former U.S. President Donald Trump and a sexual abuse lawsuit against Britain's Prince Andrew. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan replaces his colleague Ronnie Abrams, who recused herself on Friday after learning that the law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell, where her husband is a partner, advised FTX in 2021. Trump has sought the dismissal of both lawsuits, including a battery claim. Kaplan also recently oversaw Virginia Giuffre's civil lawsuit accusing Prince Andrew of sexually abusing her when she was 17 at the London home of Ghislaine Maxwell, the now-convicted former associate of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and David GregorioOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

REUTERS/Carlo AllegriDec 21 (Reuters) - Donald Trump plans to argue that a New York law allowing a writer to sue the former U.S. president over claims that he raped her decades ago is unconstitutional, according to a court filing. Trump has denied Carroll's claim that he raped her in a dressing room in a Bergdorf Goodman department store 27 years ago. The former Elle magazine columnist is suing Trump for defamation and battery under New York's Adult Survivors Act. Carroll had sued Trump for defamation in 2019 for denying her allegations, and a trial is scheduled in that case for April. Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; Editing by David GregorioOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Kaplan did not rule on Carroll's request to hold one trial combining the lawsuit, which the former longtime Elle magazine columnist filed in November 2019, with a second lawsuit she filed last week accusing Trump of battery. Trump, 76, opposed combining the lawsuits, with his lawyers saying they did not know who would represent him in the second lawsuit. Carroll's lawyer Roberta Kaplan said she was pleased with the new trial date, and understood the decision to defer rulings in the second case. Carroll made the rape accusation in her memoir, and sued Trump after he claimed in June 2019 not to know her and said she was "not my type." Her first lawsuit has been delayed as appeals courts consider whether Trump was acting as president when he scoffed at the rape claim.

He repeated the denial in an Oct. 12 post on his Truth Social account, calling Carroll's claim a "hoax" and "lie," prompting the new defamation claim. That would likely not affect her second lawsuit because Trump is a private citizen, having left the White House in January 2021. To support her battery claim, she said Trump caused her lasting psychological harm, and left her unable to sustain a romantic relationship. She also told the judge a longer delay made sense because Trump had not hired a lawyer for the second lawsuit. Judge Kaplan said he may decide early next week how to schedule both lawsuits.

A draft of the lawsuit was included in a Thursday filing by her lawyer Roberta Kaplan in Manhattan federal court, where Carroll is also suing Trump for defamation over an earlier statement about the incident. The proposed lawsuit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, and a retraction of Trump's statement. Carroll's earlier lawsuit stemmed from Trump's June 2019 statement denying that he raped her, and saying she concocted their alleged encounter to sell her forthcoming book. Trump's lawyers have proposed a May 8 trial that does not address the second lawsuit, court papers show. The case is Carroll v. Trump, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No.

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