FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried pleads not guilty in New York

Samuel Bankman-Fried arrives at Manhattan federal court in New York (Seth Wenig/AP)

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty in Manhattan federal court to charges that he cheated investors and looted customer deposits on his cryptocurrency trading platform.

Bankman-Fried, 30, is accused of illegally diverting massive sums of customer money from FTX to make lavish real estate purchases, donate money to politicians and make risky trades at Alameda Research, his cryptocurrency hedge fund trading firm.