Sam Bankman-Fried pleads not guilty to bribery charges and pays lawyers with multi-million dollar gift.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX cryptocurrency exchange, has pleaded not guilty to new US criminal charges, including conspiring to violate campaign finance laws and bribe Chinese authorities. Bankman-Fried had earlier pleaded not guilty to eight counts of fraud and conspiracy for allegedly stealing billions in FTX customer funds to plug losses at his hedge fund, Alameda Research. The new charges add to the pressure on Bankman-Fried, who faces a possible sentence of decades in prison if convicted at a trial set to start on 2 October.