The United States Department of Justice (DoJ) has confirmed plans to go ahead with the initial 7-count charge levied against embattled billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of FTX.
US Government Honors Bahamas Treaty Obligation
According to a letter sent to Judge Lewis Kaplan by U.S. lawyer Damian Williams for the DoJ, the government is preparing to request a superseding indictment next week that will encompass these charges.
Arguments that Bankman-Fried was involved in an “illegal campaign finance scheme as part of the fraud and money laundering schemes” as was originally declared would be included in this superseding indictment. The letter also stated that Bankman-Fried’s use of customer funds to conduct a politically-influenced campaign was part of the wire fraud scheme he was charged with in the original indictment.
Markedly, the U.S. government does not plan to proceed with the eight-count of campaign finance charge as a way of honoring its treaty obligation with the Bahamas. Explicitly, the Bahamas stated that SBF’s criminal finance violation charge was deliberately omitted from its extradition and the country does not wish to go ahead with it.
“As the Court is aware, the Government is prevented by its treaty obligations to the Bahamas from proceeding on Count Eight of the original Indictment, after the Bahamas stated that the defendant’s criminal campaign finance scheme was deliberately omitted from its extradition,” Attorney Williams explained the position of the U.S. government.
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SBF Requests Dismissal of Charges
The 31-year-old billionaire and his legal team had initially requested that 10 out of 13 criminal charges against him be dismissed, citing that he was hastily charged as the core reason.
Their motion requested that he be left with only 3 including conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
However, Judge Kaplan denied the motion while clarifying that “the arguments are either moot or without merit.”
At the same time, the federal judge explained that such considerations were only reserved for truly extreme cases of which Bankman-Fried does not qualify.
