US Department of Justice (DoJ) prosecutors wrote to district judge Lewis Kaplan on June 14 that they would continue to prosecute Bankman-Fried on eight charges.
Citing an application filed by Bankman-Fried in the Bahamas, Justice Department lawyers argued that many of the 13 charges against him were not included in the original indictment on which he was extradited. As this is likely to be a lengthy process, prosecutors expressed their readiness to proceed with the trial as planned regarding the charges in the original indictment.
Bankman-Fried Denies Fraud Claims
On June 14, the Bahamas Supreme Court said that Bankman-Fried should be given the opportunity to formally appeal before the base accepts new charges.
Following Bankman-Fried’s extradition, the Justice Department brought four charges in February on fraud and conspiracy charges, and an additional charge in March for alleged bribery of Chinese officials.
First accused of unsuccessfully managing the FTX exchange in December 2022, Bankman-Fried went bankrupt shortly after the stock market’s liquidity crisis in November 2022. It is estimated that FTX owes over $3 billion to creditors. Prosecutors allege that Bankman-Fried scrambled client funds and misled investors about FTX’s risk management practices, causing them to incur losses.
Caroline Ellison, former CEO of Alameda Research, a subsidiary of FTX, and Gary Wang, co-founder of FTX, pleaded guilty to fraud charges in connection with the exchange’s bankruptcy. However, Bankman-Fried stated that the bankruptcy was caused by management errors, not fraud.
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