Sam Bankman-Fried is looking to get all charges against him dropped, months ahead of his already scheduled criminal trial in October. Based on the court documents filed on May 8, the legal team of Sam Bankman-Fried pushed to dismiss all charges except three counts of conspiracy and commodities fraud. The former CEO of FTX, the now defund exchange, was extradited to the US to face a total of eight criminal charges of fraud and money laundering. Currently, the legal team argues that four out of the five additional charges openly violate the Treaty’s rule of specialty provision.
Sam Bankman-Fried has filed motions to dismiss all but three charges in the criminal case against him.
The charges he is not contesting atm are:
5. Conspiracy to commit commodities fraud
6. Conspiracy to commit securities fraud
and
11. Conspiracy to commit money laundering pic.twitter.com/0Dk1zxEw4j— Molly White (@molly0xFFF) May 9, 2023
Keeping the rule of specialty in mind, the requesting state is bound to try the offender only for the offense for which the offender was originally extradited. The lawyers argued that at the time of extradition proceedings in the Bahamas, all parties present in the court understood that the specialty provisions applied the use of a simplified procedure. At the same time, there was no mention of waiving off the rule of specialty in this case.
The four additional charges that were added recently include a conspiracy to commit bank fraud and a series of other wire fraud charges revolving around his actions at FTX. However, the most recently added charge includes bribing a Chinese official for approximately $40 million. Furthermore, the legal team of Sam Bankman-Fried argues that the initial indictment failed to specify violations regarding financial laws, and it does not refer to any US bank accounts affiliated with FTX and Alameda.
The Story of Sam Bankman-Fried Goes On
With the filings in place, a US judge is set to listen to these claims and arguments on June 15. At the same time, the concerned prosecutors have till May 29 to respond to these filings. Similarly, some additional arguments for the dismissal of Sam Bankman-Fried include the claims that FTX did not need to register itself as a money transmitter and did not apply to the exchange as it was based out of the US.
Moreover, some additional filings request discovery documents on the basis that the now-bankrupt FTX must be considered a part of the prosecution team, highlighting the cooperation of the exchange with the Department of Justice.
Currently, all FTX debtors and their respective counsels strive to make extraordinary efforts, mainly to help the prosecution team go from mere cooperation to a full-fledged criminal investigation. The inner circle of SBF has pleaded guilty, and they are also cooperating with the prosecutors. However, SBF has pleaded not guilty and is currently staying under house arrest at his parents’ house.
