Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty in a US court to claims that he intentionally stole customer deposits at FTX to fund his other firm, Alameda Research, alongside purchasing property and making political contributions.  

In early December, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Bankman-Fried with ‘orchestrating a scheme to defraud investors’, adding that he concealed his diversion of FTX customers’ funds to Alameda Research, the exchange’s crypto hedge fund while raising more than $1.8bn (£1.5bn) from investors.

This included $1.1bn (£895m) in assets missing from around 90 US-based investors after the collapse of the exchange, which filed for bankruptcy on 11 November 2022.