Sam Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges that he cheated investors in his now-bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange.
Mr Bankman-Fried is accused of looting billions of dollars in FTX customer deposits to support his Alameda Research hedge fund, buy real estate and make millions of dollars in political contributions, in what prosecutors have called a fraud of epic proportions.
The 30-year-old defendant entered his plea through his lawyer to eight criminal counts, including wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering, before US District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan federal court.
It is common for criminal defendants to initially plead not guilty. They may change their pleas later.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate could face up to 115 years in prison if convicted.
Judge Kaplan set a trial date for 2 October. Federal prosecutor Danielle Sassoon estimated that a trial could take four weeks, though Mr Bankman-Fried's lawyer said he expected it to last two to three weeks.
Mr Bankman-Fried rode a boom in the value of bitcoin and other digital assets to build a net worth of an estimated $26bn and become an influential political donor in the United States.
But FTX collapsed in early November after a wave of withdrawals and bankruptcy was declared on 11 November, wiping out Mr Bankman-Fried's fortune. He later said he had $100,000 in his bank account.
Mr Bankman-Fried was extradited last month from the Bahamas, where he lived and where the exchange was based.
Since his release on a $250m bond on 22 December, Mr Bankman-Fried has been subject to electronic monitoring and required to live with his parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, both professors at Stanford Law School in California.
Judge Kaplan granted Mr Bankman-Fried's request not to publicise the names of two additional co-signers for the bond.
Lawyers for Mr Bankman-Fried have said his parents, who co-signed the bond, have been receiving physical threats since FTX's collapse, and that other co-signers might face similar harassment unless their names were kept secret.
The prosecution case was strengthened by last month's guilty pleas of two of Mr Bankman-Fried's closest associates.
Caroline Ellison, who was Alameda's chief executive, and Gary Wang, FTX's former chief technology officer, pleaded guilty to seven and four criminal charges, respectively, and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.
Mr Bankman-Fried, Ms Ellison and Mr Wang were also sued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Ms Ellison and Mr Wang settled those civil cases.
FTX's new chief executive, John Ray, known for his work on energy company Enron Corp's bankruptcy, has said FTX was run by "grossly inexperienced" and unsophisticated people.
