The federal
judge overseeing the case against FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried has now
rejected all pre-trial motions filed by his legal teams to dismiss 10 of the 13 criminal
charges against him. Judge Lewis Kaplan of the District in New York, which
earlier denied three of the motions, has now struck out the rest,
saying they are “either moot or without merit.”
In December
last year, Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas and was subsequently extradited
to the United States on eight court charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to
commit wire fraud against FTX’s customers and sister trading firm Alameda’s
lenders. He was also charged with conspiracies to commit commodities and
securities fraud as well as violating money laundering and US federal campaign
finance laws.
However, in
a superseding indictment unveiled in February, US prosecutors slammed
Bankman-Fried with additional four charges: substantive commodities and
securities fraud counts, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and operation of an
unlicensed money transmitting business. An additional charge filed in March accused
the FTX Founder of bribing Chinese
officials in 2021,
thereby violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. These
moves increased
the count of charges to 13.
Reacting to the developments, Bankman-Fried’s
lawyers in May filed
several pre-trial motions to dismiss all charges but three: conspiracy to
commit commodities and securities fraud and conspiracy to commit money
laundering. Alternatively, they asked the court to separate the charges from
the former FTX CEO’s first trial billed for early October.
Judge
Defends Position
In
mid-June, Judge Kaplan rejected three of the motions and ruled
that extra charges slapped on Bankman-Fried after his
extradition to the US be set aside from the first one
scheduled to start in October. On Tuesday, the judge
ruled out the rest of the motions.
“Dismissal
of charges is an ‘extraordinary remedy’ reserved only for extremely limited
circumstances implicating fundamental rights,” Judge Kaplan wrote in a 41-page ruling defending his decision.
“The Second Circuit has deemed dismissal an ‘extreme sanction’ that has been
upheld ‘only in very limited and extreme circumstances,’ and should be
‘reserved for the truly extreme cases,’ ‘especially where serious criminal
conduct is involved.’”
Bankman-Fried
has previously pleaded
not guilty to all the charges slammed on
him. On the
contrary, two top associates of the FTX Founder, Alameda Research’s former CEO,
Caroline Ellison, and Alameda and FTX’s Co-Founder, Zixiao (Gary) Wang, pled guilty in December to criminal charges filed by US prosecutors.
Meanwhile,
FTX, which filed for bankruptcy
protection in November,
is still undergoing court proceedings in the District of Delaware, with the
new management of the crypto exchange disclosing yesterday (Monday) that they have recovered $7 billion out of $8.7 billion owed to
customers.
TradingView integrates FYERS; Crypto.com opens innovation lab; read today’s news nuggets.
The federal
judge overseeing the case against FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried has now
rejected all pre-trial motions filed by his legal teams to dismiss 10 of the 13 criminal
charges against him. Judge Lewis Kaplan of the District in New York, which
earlier denied three of the motions, has now struck out the rest,
saying they are “either moot or without merit.”
In December
last year, Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas and was subsequently extradited
to the United States on eight court charges of wire fraud and conspiracy to
commit wire fraud against FTX’s customers and sister trading firm Alameda’s
lenders. He was also charged with conspiracies to commit commodities and
securities fraud as well as violating money laundering and US federal campaign
finance laws.
However, in
a superseding indictment unveiled in February, US prosecutors slammed
Bankman-Fried with additional four charges: substantive commodities and
securities fraud counts, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and operation of an
unlicensed money transmitting business. An additional charge filed in March accused
the FTX Founder of bribing Chinese
officials in 2021,
thereby violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. These
moves increased
the count of charges to 13.
Reacting to the developments, Bankman-Fried’s
lawyers in May filed
several pre-trial motions to dismiss all charges but three: conspiracy to
commit commodities and securities fraud and conspiracy to commit money
laundering. Alternatively, they asked the court to separate the charges from
the former FTX CEO’s first trial billed for early October.
Judge
Defends Position
In
mid-June, Judge Kaplan rejected three of the motions and ruled
that extra charges slapped on Bankman-Fried after his
extradition to the US be set aside from the first one
scheduled to start in October. On Tuesday, the judge
ruled out the rest of the motions.
“Dismissal
of charges is an ‘extraordinary remedy’ reserved only for extremely limited
circumstances implicating fundamental rights,” Judge Kaplan wrote in a 41-page ruling defending his decision.
“The Second Circuit has deemed dismissal an ‘extreme sanction’ that has been
upheld ‘only in very limited and extreme circumstances,’ and should be
‘reserved for the truly extreme cases,’ ‘especially where serious criminal
conduct is involved.’”
Bankman-Fried
has previously pleaded
not guilty to all the charges slammed on
him. On the
contrary, two top associates of the FTX Founder, Alameda Research’s former CEO,
Caroline Ellison, and Alameda and FTX’s Co-Founder, Zixiao (Gary) Wang, pled guilty in December to criminal charges filed by US prosecutors.
Meanwhile,
FTX, which filed for bankruptcy
protection in November,
is still undergoing court proceedings in the District of Delaware, with the
new management of the crypto exchange disclosing yesterday (Monday) that they have recovered $7 billion out of $8.7 billion owed to
customers.
TradingView integrates FYERS; Crypto.com opens innovation lab; read today’s news nuggets.
