Federal prosecutors of the United States Justice Department (DoJ) have reportedly agreed to temporarily drop five of the thirteen charges against the ex-CEO of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), as per Wednesday’s court filings. As per the prosecutors, the dropped charges await Bahamas government authorization for readdition. The dropped charges include bank fraud, an unlicensed money transfer business, and offering a $40 million monetary inducement to Chinese officials to unfreeze accounts of the trading arm Alameda Research.
Reports suggested that the prosecutors kept the original accusations intact for the October 2 trial. Further, the five charges in question were imposed on SBF following his extradition from the Bahamas to the US in December. While after the extradition of a defendant prosecutors generally do not impose new charges, in SBF’s case, his lawyers sought dismissal of the new charges citing the extradition process’ violation.
Notably, a Bahamas judge ruled in favor of SBF on Tuesday by permitting him to challenge the fresh charges’ inclusion in a local court. As per a letter addressed to Judge Lewis Kaplan of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, US Attorney Damian Williams asserted that the Bahamas court trial would potentially continue up until SBF’s US trial.
The prosecutors are reported to have requested a trial date in the first quarter of 2024 for the five charges in another individual trial as it would “simplify the proof at trial and decrease the burden of trial preparation.”
The Australian community newspaper Inner City Press reported first on the Department of Justice letter, proclaiming that the DOJ has agreed to ‘Sever and Delay China Bribe and Some DC Counts.’ Inner City News tweeted:
DOJ DELAY: In Sam Bankman-Fried Case Now DOJ Agrees to Sever and Delay China Bribe and Some DC Counts Because of Bahamas – Inner City Press story: https://t.co/qOYQDiUm1l Filing on Patreon here https://t.co/cViHsfdy7g
— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) June 15, 2023
SBF is reported to have been on house arrest in California. His lawyers are set to appear in US court on Thursday to request the judge to withdraw some from the remaining eight charges, as they believe these charges do not carry any weight. These eight remaining charges include wire fraud, securities fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
