Chelsea Jia Feng/Insider
- Sam Bankman-Fried wasn't offered any plea deals in fraud trial, prosecutors said.
- The criminal trial against Bankman-Fried kicked off on Tuesday with jury selection.
- The trial addresses the historic collapse of crypto exchange platform FTX.
The US government confirmed on Tuesday that Sam Bankman-Fried hadn't been offered any plea deals in the criminal case.
Bankman-Fried's lawyers said they were not interested in a plea deal. Though, some of the FTX cofounders' former associates, including ex-Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX cofounder Gary Wang, pleaded guilty to fraud charges in December and have been cooperating with investigators.
Jury selection in the trial started on Tuesday and the two sides are not expected to give their opening statements until Wednesday. Lawyers will select 12 jurors and six alternates from a pool of 50 prospective jurors.
The criminal trial will address the historic collapse of the crypto exchange platform FTX.
Bankman-Fried is charged with orchestrating a scheme to defraud FTX customers and investors out of billions of dollars.
Prosecutors say Bankman-Fried borrowed money from customer accounts to fund bets via Alameda Research, an affiliated hedge fund. He directed employees to develop programming code that allowed unlimited funds to move between the companies quickly and quietly, prosecutors alleged in their indictment.
The former FTX CEO is facing seven criminal charges, including wire fraud and money laundering, and has pleaded not guilty to all counts. Since the exchange collapsed, Bankman-Fried has argued the people who took over FTX after it collapsed misunderstood his intentions and he has attempted to put the blame for the platform's collapse on other executives.
The trial could last six weeks, and Ellison and Wang are expected to testify. If convicted, Bankman-Fried could face a hefty prison sentence.