DOJ Now Convicts Only 8 Crimes With Sam Bankman-Fried

Key Points:

• For the time being, the DOJ wants to trial FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried exclusively on the eight accusations filed in December 2022.
• A judge in the Bahamas barred the government from consenting to the extra accusations until Bankman-defense Fried’s team could challenge them.
• The fresh accusations, according to prosecutors, should be prosecuted in the first quarter of 2024.

On June 15, prosecutors of the US Department of Justice (DOJ) currently intend to try FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) only on eight charges brought in December 2022.

The eight charges, namely conspiracy to commit wire fraud against a customer, wire fraud against a customer, conspiracy to wire fraud against a lender, wire fraud against a lender, conspiracy to commit commodity fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to defraud the United States and election violations financial law. Prosecutors stated:

“In light of the uncertainty concerning when The Bahamas will render a decision with respect to specialty, and to simplify the proof at trial and decrease the burden of trial preparation on the defendant, the Government is prepared to proceed to trial as scheduled on the counts contained in the original Indictment.”

SBF previously faced a total of 13 charges, but five of those were filed as superseding indictments in February and March 2023. It was previously reported yesterday that the Bahamas court temporarily prohibited the government from agreeing to the additional criminal proceedings after the extradition of SBF by the United States.

Prosecutors proposed that the new charges be tried in the first quarter of 2024. Bankman-Fried is scheduled to go on trial in October.

Last month, U.S. federal prosecutors in Manhattan said they would drop five counts of foreign bribery, bank fraud and conspiracy against SBF if the Bahamian government disagreed. Those charges were not included in SBF’s original eight-count charge in December, which focused on the FTX debacle the previous month, but were added after his extradition.

If SBF lawyers add additional charges, the SBF fraud lawsuit may be postponed for “months or years.” Bankman-Fried’s lawyers argued that the charges added by the DOJ after his extradition could violate the U.S. treaty with the Bahamas and that he has the right to challenge any attempt to add them in overseas courts.

In addition, the U.S. Supreme Court bolstered the plaintiffs’ defense by narrowing the scope of federal fraud laws in a May case involving bidding for state contracts. Lawyers for Bankman-Fried argue that this and other case law undercuts SBF’s argument that it defrauded banks and people who borrowed money from Alameda Research, who could, in principle, still get their funds back if the company winds up.

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