A federal decide on Tuesday rejected Sam Bankman-Fried’s bid to throw out a lot of the US authorities’s prison case accusing the FTX cryptocurrency change founding father of orchestrating a multibillion-dollar fraud.
The determination by US District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan paves the best way for an October 2 trial of Bankman-Fried, a 31-year-old former billionaire.
Prosecutors accused Bankman-Fried of stealing billions of {dollars} in FTX buyer funds to plug losses at his Alameda Research hedge fund.
They additionally accused Bankman-Fried of deceptive buyers and lenders, and contributing illegally to US political campaigns within the names of colleagues.
Bankman-Fried has pleaded not responsible and denied stealing funds, whereas acknowledging that FTX had insufficient danger administration.
Bankman-Fried in May requested Kaplan to dismiss at the least 11 of the 13 fraud and conspiracy fees he confronted.
Bankman-Fried mentioned some fees relied on a fraud idea — the place a defendant could possibly be convicted for depriving somebody of economically invaluable data and never simply tangible property — the US Supreme Court final month deemed invalid.
But the decide agreed with prosecutors that the speculation, referred to as proper to regulate, didn’t apply to Bankman-Fried.
“The defendant’s assertion that the indictment does not allege any ‘economic loss’ to FTX customers appears to be factually incorrect,” and the alleged misappropriated funds clearly constituted property, Kaplan wrote.
A spokesman for Bankman-Fried declined to remark.
Bankman-Fried additionally argued that some fees have been improperly introduced with out consent from the Bahamas, the place he was arrested in December and extradited to the United States.
An extradition treaty between the United States and the Bahamas, the place FTX was based mostly, says a rustic should consent earlier than defendants may be tried on fees introduced after their extradition.
Kaplan this month mentioned a second trial might be held March 11 on the 5 fees prosecutors introduced in opposition to Bankman-Fried after his extradition.
Prosecutors mentioned they requested the Bahamas to conform to these fees, which embody conspiracy to bribe Chinese officers and commit financial institution fraud, however didn’t know when the Caribbean nation would grant its consent.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
