One of Joe Biden’s biggest donors is facing the possibility of life in prison.
But he just pleaded not guilty to all charges.
And now, the trial of the century is about to begin.
Sam Bankman-Fried, who once enjoyed the status of being the second largest donor to Democrats like Joe Biden in 2020, and the largest donor to Democrats in 2022, is now staring down the possibility of spending the rest of his life behind bars.
With the collapse of Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange FTX in November 2022, hundreds of thousands of people had millions of dollars wiped out in an instant.
And after hiding out in the Bahamas for a month denying that he had done anything wrong, Bankman-Fried was finally arrested and extradited to the United States, where he is now facing numerous charges related to his alleged defrauding of investors.
Now, Bankman-Fried has watched himself go from being hailed as a hero of the Left to being called a crypto con-man.
But even now, he continues to double down on his story that he did nothing wrong.
And he’s now about to trigger one of the largest criminal trials in American history.
Reuters reports, “Sam Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to criminal charges that he cheated investors in his now-bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange and caused billions of dollars in losses, in what prosecutors have called an “epic” fraud.
He entered his plea in Manhattan federal court where he faces eight criminal counts, including wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy. The 30-year-old ex-mogul is accused of looting FTX customers’ deposits to support his Alameda Research hedge fund, buy real estate and donate millions of dollars to political causes.”
Bankman-Fried has more than enough legal headaches to deal with at the moment.
With his firm in tatters, his wealth having dropped over 90% in a single day, and Democrats finally throwing him to the wolves after raking in millions of dollars from him for years, Bankman-Fried is now having to deal with the nightmare of watching his own former business associates testifying against him.
In fact, two of FTX and Alameda’s top financial officers have already entered into plea deals with Federal prosecutors, who will likely use their stories to build a case against Bankman-Fried in the hopes of securing a conviction on at least one of the numerous charges leveled against him.
It is clear that a major legal battle is looming as Bankman-Fried fights for his own freedom after overseeing one of the largest financial collapses in the last decade.
But prosecutors have already released information that could be devastating for both Bankman-Fried and Joe Biden.
“Customer funds were also used and laundered through political donations, charitable donations and a variety of venture investments,” said one Federal prosecutor when outlining the case against Joe Biden’s second largest donor.
The trial is expected to begin in early October 2023, and could last weeks before finally drawing to a close.