FTX founder Samuel Bankman-Fried has entered a not guilty plea to 13 new criminal charges brought against him in a US court.

Bankman-Fried now faces 21 charges against him relating to the spectacular collapse of crypto exchange FTX.

The new charges relate to allegations which say Bankman-Fried bribed Chinese officials around $40 million to persuade them to unfreeze assets in the hedge fund of FTX sister company Alameda which reportedly held around $1 billion in cryptocurrency.

Bankman-Fried previously declared his innocence in eight charges, which include securities fraud, money laundering and campaign finance violations.

FTX was the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency exchange until its collapse late last year. The company filed for bankruptcy after the crypto equivalent of a bank run led FTX investors to withdraw over $6 billion in less than 72 hours.

The ‘crypto run’ was set in motion after multiple outlets reported that FTX was missing at least $1 billion in client funds.

A non-binding rescue deal was considered by rival exchange Binance, but it pulled out less than 24 hours later, citing mishandled customer funds and alleged US agency investigations.

The fallout led to authorities freezing the assets of FTX’s subsidiary in the Bahamas and Sequoia, one of FTX’s largest investors, wrote down its $150 million investment to nothing – effectively declaring the company worthless.

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