Since his December arrest on fraud charges, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and his lawyers have suggested part of his defense will be seeking to distance himself from the day-to-day operations of the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange, Reuters reported. But new accusations against him and a third former member of his inner circle in recent weeks could complicate that strategy, some experts said. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan unveiled new charges on Feb. 23 that appeared to undermine some of Bankman-Fried's public claims since the collapse of FTX, and later revealed the guilty plea and cooperation of the exchange's former engineering chief Nishad Singh. Former FTX technology chief Gary Wang and Caroline Ellison, formerly the CEO of Bankman-Fried's Alameda Research hedge fund, had each previously pleaded guilty and are cooperating. Bankman-Fried previously pleaded not guilty to stealing billions of dollars in FTX customer funds to plug losses at Alameda. The 31-year-old former billionaire and his lawyers have suggested they will attempt to shift blame onto Ellison and dispute her expected testimony at his Oct. 2 trial.
