Lawyer: FTX founder likely challenging new crypto charges

By LARRY NEUMEISTER
Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — A lawyer for onetime cryptocurrency darling Sam Bankman-Fried is signaling that he’s challenging the validity of new charges contained in rewritten indictments released in recent weeks after his client was brought to the United States from the Bahamas in December. Attorney Mark Cohen told a Manhattan federal court judge on Thursday that the 31-year-old Bankman-Fried pleads not guilty to new charges lodged against him in what a prosecutor has labeled as one of the biggest frauds in American history. Although he’s pleading not guilty to the charges, Cohen says Bankman-Fried is not acknowledging he can be tried on them. Among the new charges is an allegation that he directed the payment of $40 million in bribes to Chinese officials.