Crypto news regarding Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and former CEO of the exchange FTX that collapsed in November, who will be tried only on original charges at this time, according to the US Department of Justice.
Full details follow.
Summary
The planned trial of Sam Bankman-Fried, former CEO of crypto exchange FTX
As anticipated above, currently, the US Department of Justice intends to exclusively prosecute Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and former CEO of FTX, for eight of the charges filed in December 2022.
Specifically, DOJ prosecutors have indicated that they will agree to try Bankman-Fried on some of the charges, including wire fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering.
However, this came after a Bahamian court blocked the local government from accepting additional charges. Bankman-Fried faces a total of 13 charges, but five of these were replaced with new charges in February and March 2023.
In one of the motions filed to seek dismissal of the indictment last month, Bankman-Fried’s lawyers said the Bahamian government had to accept the additional charges, including bank fraud, operating an unlicensed money transmitter, and bribery, before the former CEO could stand trial.
This is because Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas and extradited to the United States last year. On Tuesday, a Bahamian court barred the government from accepting such additional charges until Bankman-Fried’s defense team had a chance to oppose such approval.
In addition, in a letter sent to Judge Lewis Kaplan of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, US Attorney Damian Williams and his team wrote that the dispute in the Bahamas court could drag on until Bankman-Fried’s trial in the US.
The original and subsequent charges against SBF
The charges filed include derivatives-related FTX customer fraud, securities fraud against FTX investors, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transfer business, and conspiracy to bribe foreign government officials, the latter of which is included in the latest superseding indictment.
In fact, the letter states the following:
“In light of the uncertainty surrounding when the Bahamas will make a specialty decision, and to streamline the trial trial and reduce the trial preparation burden on the defendant, the government is prepared to proceed with the trial as planned on the Chiefs of indictment contained in the original indictment.”
We emphasize that the original charges include: conspiracy to commit wire fraud on FTX clients (count one), wire fraud on FTX clients (count two), conspiracy to commit fraud on derivative-related FTX clients (count three), conspiracy to commit securities fraud against FTX investors (count five).
Next: conspiracy to commit wire fraud on lenders to Alameda Research (count seven), wire fraud on lenders to Alameda Research (count eight), conspiracy to commit money laundering (count eleven), and conspiracy to make illicit political contributions and defraud the Federal Election Commission (count twelve).
As a result, prosecutors have requested a trial date in the first quarter of 2024 for the additional charges. As far as is currently known, Bankman-Fried is scheduled to go to trial this October.
SBF lawyers try to drop charges, but are rejected
As is known, Bankman-Fried’s defense team filed additional motions to dismiss most of the other charges based on various grounds, but the Justice Department rejected their arguments.
In addition, a hearing has been scheduled for 10:30 AM (ET) on Thursday for oral arguments on the motions to dismiss. The Justice Department’s letter was first reported by Inner City Press.
A second letter submitted by prosecutors Wednesday night addressed earlier claims by Bankman-Fried’s team that the DOJ had not provided all the required discovery materials.
According to this second letter, DOJ believes it provided most of the materials requested for discovery, but pointed out that delays were encountered for various reasons, including technical problems.
