Key takeaways:
- Sam Bankman-Fried is expected to be acquitted of a charge the US government brought against him for allegedly conspiring to make illegal campaign contributions.
- Prosecutors requested to revoke Bankman-Fried’s bail, alleging he intimidated and tried to publicly discredit Caroline Ellison by leaking her private journals.
Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), a co-founder of FTX, is anticipated to be acquitted of a charge that the US government brought against him for allegedly conspiring to make illegal campaign contributions.
US Attorney Damian Williams wrote in a letter dated July 26 to District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan that the government had been informed by The Bahamas that it had declined to extradite Bankman-Fried on the accusation and that, as a result, the case would not go to trial.
Williams stated in the letter that the Bahamas has no intention of requesting the defendant’s extradition based on campaign contributions. Williams further noted:
“In keeping with its treaty obligations to The Bahamas, the Government does not intend to proceed to trial on the campaign contributions count.”
The charge was one that SBF had previously refuted, claiming that it had been brought after he had signed an extradition agreement with the Bahamas and that it broke international law.
The allegations that SBF used his freedom to intimidate Ellison, his former partner and coworker, led Assistant US Attorney Danielle Sassoon to ask for the revocation of SBF’s bail during a hearing on July 26 in US District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Sassoon claims that SBF made about 100 phone calls to the journalist who broke The New York Times news about Ellison’s secret online journals.
According to reports, Judge Lewis Kaplan will hear arguments from the US government on July 28 and from SBF’s legal team on August 3, cautioning Bankman-Fried to “better take it seriously.” A temporary order that was first produced by the prosecution and approved by the judge mainly prohibited SBF from making any extrajudicial statements until the outcome of the bail arguments was made.
SBF is accused of 13 offenses; eight of them, including the one the government has decided to drop, were made public in December. Indictments that were superseded in February and March 2023 included an additional five charges.
In order to try SBF on the five additional accusations brought against him after his extradition, prosecutors asked the Bahamian authorities for a waiver. As a result, the government divided the charges into separate trials scheduled for October 2023 and March 2024.
Following the dismissal of this case, the former FTX CEO will be accused of 12 offenses, including various counts of fraud and fraud conspiracy, money laundering, and official bribery in China. SBF has entered a not-guilty plea to all charges.
