US authorities said SBF would be tried on the initial eight criminal charges; for now
Lawyers for the DoJ claim the decision was made as a result of a lawsuit filed by FTX co-founders in the Bahamas to challenge the new charges, which may take time to resolve.
Sam Bankman-Fried, co-founder of FTX, will continue to face the eight charges originally filed against him by American prosecutors in his criminal case.
Prosecutors with the US Department of Justice (DoJ) notified district judge Lewis Kaplan in court files dated June 14 that they will try Bankman-Fried on the eight charges they have filed against him by December 2022.
Lawyers for the DoJ highlighted a motion filed by Bankman-Fried in the Bahamas, in which he claims that some of the 13 charges against him were not included in the original charges on which his extradition from the country was based. The public prosecutor stated that they are “ready to proceed with the trial according to the schedule set out in the initial indictments” because this is expected to be a protracted process.
“It now appears that the litigation surrounding the motion will take time and may not be completed until after the trial date.”
The Supreme Court of the Bahamas ruled on June 14 that Bankman-Fried must be given the opportunity to formally challenge the new charges before the state can sanction them.
Following the Bankman-Fried extradition, the DoJ uncovered four more counts in February related to fraud and fraud conspiracy charges, plus a further charge in March involving paying bribes to Chinese authorities.
The founder and previous CEO of cryptocurrency exchange FTX was Bankman-Fried. Due to his handling of the failed exchange, he was initially billed in December 2022. The exchange ran into liquidity problems in November 2022, which immediately resulted in his bankruptcy.
More than $3 billion is considered FTX owed to creditors. The authorities claim that Bankman-Fried mixed up customer funds and provided false information to investors about FTX’s risk management procedures, resulting in losses for both investors and clients.
Gary Wang, co-founder of FTX, and Caroline Ellison, former CEO of sister firm Alameda Research, both pleaded guilty to fraud charges related to the exchange’s collapse. Bankman-Fried, however, insisted that mismanagement rather than fraud was to blame for the collapse.
The US postal authority said SBF would be tried on the initial eight criminal charges; for now first appearing on BTC Wires.
