US prosecutors seek removal of Bankman-Fried charges from October trial.

U.S. Prosecutors Seek Separate Trial for Founder of Bankrupt Cryptocurrency Exchange FTX

By Luc Cohen

NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. prosecutors are requesting a separate trial for Sam Bankman-Fried, the indicted founder of FTX, a now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange. Bankman-Fried is facing new charges of foreign bribery, bank fraud, and conspiracy.

The prosecutors added these charges after Bankman-Fried’s extradition from the Bahamas in December 2022, following the collapse of FTX. The initial indictment included eight counts, accusing the former billionaire of stealing billions of dollars from FTX customers and deceiving investors and lenders.

Bankman-Fried, 31, has pleaded not guilty to all 13 counts. He has requested U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan to dismiss the new charges or hold a separate trial for them, apart from his scheduled trial on October 2.

A court in the Bahamas, where FTX was based, has temporarily prevented the country’s government from allowing U.S. prosecutors to pursue the new charges.

In their court filing on Wednesday, federal prosecutors in Manhattan mentioned the uncertainty surrounding the Bahamas’ decision and asked Judge Kaplan to schedule a trial for the five new counts in the first quarter of 2024. They have also stated that they will drop the charges if the Caribbean nation does not consent to them.

Judge Kaplan is expected to hear arguments on Thursday at a 10:30 a.m. EDT (1430 GMT) hearing.

Bankman-Fried’s lawyers have requested the dismissal of at least 11 of the charges. They have also argued that the Bahamas did not consent to a charge of violating U.S. campaign finance laws brought before his extradition.

(Reporting by Abinaya Vijayaraghavan in Bengaluru and by Luc Cohen in New York; editing by Jason Neely, Elaine Hardcastle)

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