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A third executive of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX appears to be nearing a plea deal in the US federal investigation of the company.
On Wednesday, May 26, FTX executive Thomas Kim appeared before the US District Court in San Francisco for a virtual hearing. According to court documents, the plea agreement was presented to the court by the prosecutor and Kim’s defence.
Kim, an executive of the San Francisco-based FTX, had been indicted by a federal grand jury nearly two months ago for allegedly engaging in unlicensed money transmission and operating an unregistered money services business.
This news comes after the plea agreement of fellow FTX executive Benjamin Reynolds and the detention of the third executive, Ravinder Sharma, in April.
FTX is a high-volume cryptocurrency exchange based in San Francisco and it is not registered with any US financial regulator. Despite FTX while not being legally required to register with the US authorities, it was reportedly under criminal investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) since at least January 2021.
The crimes of which the defendants had been accused of were reportedly violating the Bank Secrecy Act, which regulates financial transactions to prevent money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
Kim is yet to enter a plea agreement in his criminal case. If the court accepts the plea agreement, the details of which are not yet available, sentencing will be determined at a later date.
This story is developing.
