U.S. Prosecutors Announce SBF to Face 8 Criminal Charges in Trial

The criminal trial of Sam Bankman-Fried, co-founder of FTX, will proceed with the eight charges originally brought against him by U.S. prosecutors, for the time being.

In a June 14 court filing, the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) informed District Judge Lewis Kaplan that they intend to proceed with the trial of Bankman-Fried on the eight charges brought against him in December 2022.

The lawyers from the Department of Justice referred to a motion made by Bankman-Fried in the Bahamas, which contended that many of the thirteen charges he was accused of were not listed in the original indictment which had served as the grounds for his extradition from the nation. As this process is expected to take a considerable amount of time, the prosecutors declared that they are “ready to go ahead with the trial as planned on the counts included in the original indictment.”

The Supreme Court of the Bahamas declared on June 14 that Bankman-Fried must be allowed to dispute the new charges before the nation can accept them.

Following Bankman-Fried’s extradition, the Department of Justice (DoJ) revealed four more charges in February pertaining to fraud and fraud conspiracy, as well as an extra charge in March concerning bribes to Chinese officials.

SBF is attempting to separate the new charges from the trial, and has stated that the proceedings could take a long time.

Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of the crypto exchange FTX, was initially indicted in December 2022 with regards to his oversight of the now defunct exchange. In November 2022, FTX faced a liquidity crisis, which resulted in its bankruptcy shortly thereafter.

It is estimated that FTX owes creditors in excess of $3 billion. Prosecutors claim that Bankman-Fried mixed customer funds together and deceived investors about FTX’s risk management strategies, causing losses for both investors and customers.

Caroline Ellison, ex-CEO of sister firm Alameda Research, and FTX co-founder Gary Wang have both admitted to criminal charges regarding the exchange’s failure.