US Prosecutors Slam Sam Bankman-Fried’s Opposition to Criminal Charges

US prosecutors in court documents, which were filed on Monday, opposed pre-trial motions filed by FTX's Co-Founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyers to dismiss a number of the 13 charges against him. In one of the filings, the prosecutors said the motions were “meritless.”

Prosecutors Stand by Charges

In late 2022, Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas over the collapse of the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange, FTX. The arrest came after criminal charges were filed against him in the United States. Some of the charges include conspiracy to commit wire, bank and securities fraud, to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business, commit money laundering and make unlawful political contributions.

In March, prosecutors slammed the disgraced entrepreneur with an additional charge: conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. He is alleged to have paid $40 million in bribes to Chinese officials to unfreeze certain accounts belonging to FTX’s sister trading firm Alameda Research.

In early May, Bankman-Fried lawyers filed pre-trial motions to dismiss several of the charges, including those related to conspiracy to commit wire fraud on FTX customers and Alameda lenders. However, the motions did not counter the securities fraud and money laundering charges against the former CEO of FTX.

Meanwhile, the lawyers argued that the indictment against Bankman-Fried include extra charges that run afoul of extradition terms agreed with the Bahamas. Furthermore, the lawyers in one of the motions sought to dismiss charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, operate an unlicensed money transmitting business, make unlawful political contributions and defraud the Federal Election Commission as well as violate the anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Opposing these charges, they cited “the rule of specialty, or in the alternative, for disclosure of additional discovery from the Government.” The discovery process is a pre-trial procedure that allows parties in a lawsuit to gather information about the case from each other. However, reacting via its court's latest filing, US prosecutors defended the charges. With regards to the extradition terms, they noted that they have not violated the terms as the agreement permits extra charges post-extradition with the consent of the Bahamas.

Regarding the lawyers’ opposition to charges of campaign finance law violation in which Bankman-Fried is accused of fraudulent political donations through his former executives, prosecutors said their indictment contained enough details of attempts that the former FTX boss had made to hide the conduct.

Bankman-Fried's trial is scheduled to start on October 2, 2023. In January, he pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. The former crypto mogul could get up to 115 years in prison sentence if convicted.

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