Disgraced former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried on Tuesday pleaded not guilty to fraud and money laundering charges. His lawyers decried his conditions in jail, including a lack of vegan meals, stating, “because he’s following his principles, [Bankman-Fried] is only now subsisting on a diet of bread and water.”
Bankman-Fried appeared in court in his first court appearance since losing bail last month over concerns he had engaged in witness tampering.
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (second on left) is led away in handcuffs by officers of the Royal Bahamas Police Force in Nassau, Bahamas, on December 13, 2022. (MARIO DUNCANSON/AFP via Getty Images)
The former FTX CEO was charged with seven counts of fraud and money laundering and an additional campaign finance charge, to which he pleaded not guilty to all of the counts.
Bankman-Fried’s lawyers also raised concerns that he lacked proper food and medication, which would hamper his ability to put up a proper defense.
Coindesk reported:
Cohen deplored the prison’s lack of vegan options, stating “because he’s following his principles, [Bankman-Fried] is only now subsisting on a diet of bread and water.”
Cohen also said the prison had failed to provide the FTX founder with Adderall, a drug commonly prescribed for the treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Bankman-Fried was also running low on his supply of EMSAM, an antidepressant, according to his attorney.
Bankman-Fried’s lawyers also said that Bankman-Fried needs access to a laptop to review the “millions of” documents produced during discovery.
“There is no way for him to effectively communicate his work product, his analyses to us,” Christian Everdell, one of Bankman-Fried’s lawyers, said. “He needs to be performing analyses.”
Bankman-Fried’s trial will likely start in early October.
Prosecutors charged Bankman-Fried with using $100 million in stolen customer funds to donate to mostly Democrats during the 2022 midterm elections.
“The founder, often known as “SBF,” used his wealth to become a Democrat super-donor, and was the second-largest contributor to Joe Biden’s campaign in 2020. Scarcely 30 years old, the crypto baron had ambitions to displace George Soros as the largest donor to Democrats and Democrat causes,” Breitbart News’s Allum Bokhari reported.
Sean Moran is a policy reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
