Bankman-Fried Survives on ‘Bread and Water,’ Pleads ‘Not Guilty’ to $100 Million Fraud Charges

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is reportedly surviving on “bread and water” in jail as he awaits trial.

That’s according to the accused cryptocurrency fraudster’s attorney, who asked a judge during a hearing Tuesday (Aug. 22) to remedy the situation at the Brooklyn jail, Reuters reported. Bankman-Fried has requested vegan food.

The comments came as Bankman-Fried entered a “not guilty” plea to a new indictment accusing him of fraud and conspiracy charges. It marked his first court appearance since Judge Lewis Kaplan revoked his $250 million bail earlier this month.

The judge had sided with prosecutors who argued that Bankman-Fried engaged in witness tampering by giving a reporter documents belonging to Caroline Ellison, Bankman-Fried’s former lover and CEO of Alameda Research, the hedge fund at the center of FTX’s downfall.

That collapse rocked the crypto sector last year and has led to a criminal case against Bankman-Fried, 31, who could spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted.

In the latest series of charges, filed last week, prosecutors alleged Bankman-Fried used stolen customer funds to make upward of $100 million in campaign contributions ahead of last year’s midterm elections in the United States.

Bankman-Fried’s trial is due to begin in October. The court hearing earlier this month offered a glimpse of both sides’ approaches to the case, with prosecutors writing that the “central allegations in this case concern pervasive deception and the wholesale misappropriation of billions of dollars from customers, investors and lenders.”

The government alleged Bankman-Fried made false statements to a bank to gain access to FTX customer deposits, misappropriated funds, bribed foreign officials to access trading capital, manipulated the value of the FTT token, destroyed evidence and more.

Meanwhile, Bankman-Fried’s lawyers have filed a motion to limit the evidence prosecutors can bring to trial, hoping to bar the government from introducing evidence that was offered to the defense after July 1.

“[T]he government’s numerous failures to meet the discovery deadlines that it represented to the court … has substantially prejudiced Mr. Bankman-Fried’s ability to prepare his defense,” the defense motion said.

Defense attorneys also asked to have any mention of FTX’s bankruptcy struck from the evidence presented during the trial.

However, attorney Mark Cohen argued Tuesday that his client can’t adequately prepare for trial without a proper diet and his medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Reuters reported.

“Because he’s following his principles, he is literally now subsisting on bread and water,” Cohen said, per the report, adding that his supply of the drug Emsam to treat depression is running out.

For all PYMNTS crypto coverage, subscribe to the daily Crypto Newsletter.