Lawyers for former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (also known as "SBF") are seeking to sever or dismiss six charges in his upcoming trial, claiming it could take years for Bahamian courts to rule on whether they allow him to He will stand trial For those crimes, according to a June 12 filing in federal court in New York.
Prosecutors acknowledged on May 29 that they need permission from the Bahamas to try the five charges Bankman-Fried is indicated on because those crimes were not included in the original agreement that allowed his extradition to the United States. y were seeking permission from the Bahamian government to try him for these additional crimes. In response, lawyers for SBF said on June 12 that they had asked the Supreme Court of the Bahamas to block the government from granting the license unless the law allows it. the Bahamas is expected to respond by June 13. Meanwhile, a Bahamian court has told a minister in the executive branch not to pass a judgment on the issue, defense attorneys said. According to the defense, even if the unnamed minister allows SBF to be charged with other crimes,the accused has the right to appeal the decision through the Bahamian courts. That means the process "could take months or years to resolve". In the meantime, the charges should be dropped because they were used to place the accused under house arrest.
Defense attorneys also offered an alternative solution to the problem: If the US District Court finds that the charges cannot be dismissed, they should be cut from the pending trial. That would allow Bankman-Fried to stand trial on the seven counts for which he agreed to be extradited, but nothing else.
Bankman-Fried was originally charged in December for managing failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX. Prosecutors accused him of commingling client funds and misleading investors about FTX's risk management practices, resulting in losses for both investors and clients . Bankman-Fried claimed the exchange's collapse was due to ordinary management error, not fraud.
