SBF Pleads Not Responsible to All 13 Counts

On March thirtieth, FTX founder SBF pleaded not responsible to all federal costs introduced in opposition to him, together with bribery costs introduced final week.

SBF’s lawyer, Mark Cohen, instructed reporters that he intends to file a movement to scale back among the costs and for the court docket to not proceed with a trial for all the costs in opposition to SBF on the grounds that he can’t be tried for costs introduced after extradition. It’s presently unclear whether or not the court docket will approve the movement.

SBF’s trial is ready to start in October. He additionally faces a civil costs from the U.S. Securities and Trade Fee and the U.S. Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee. On the listening to on March thirtieth, SBF’s lawyer argued that SBF was unable to acquire protection or illustration in the course of the extradition course of, thus violating the precise to a good trial.

Cohen additionally famous that the FBI had seized information from considered one of SBF’s corporations, making it troublesome for the defendant to acquire sure proof for his protection. In response to those arguments, federal prosecutors accused SBF of constructing false and deceptive statements throughout his extradition listening to and challenged SBF’s capability to make knowledgeable selections about his protection.

Potential Penalties

The 13 federal costs in opposition to SBF embrace fraud, cash laundering and obstruction of justice, all of which carry a most sentence of as much as 20 years in jail and a $250,000 high-quality, or twice the gross achieve or loss associated to the offense.

SBF is presently out on $10 million bond and was ordered to not depart the U.S. with out court docket approval.

SBF’s case is ready to go to trial this October and the jury is anticipated to make its willpower primarily based on the proof offered on the trial. For now, SBF has maintained his not responsible plea to all costs.

Supporters React

A lot of SBF’s supporters have expressed their outrage on the U.S. authorities’s pursuit of SBF and have additionally raised questions concerning the costs in opposition to him. Particularly, supporters have argued that:

• SBF’s authorized points needs to be dealt with via civil proceedings, not legal proceedings
• The U.S. authorities is overreaching in its pursuit of SBF
• The U.S. authorities is unfairly focusing on SBF whereas largely ignoring alleged misdeeds of U.S. residents and companies

Supporters have additionally identified that, whereas SBF was the CEO of FTX, the corporate cooperated with U.S. authorities in its investigation. Critics have argued that the U.S. authorities is utilizing its affect to focus on SBF fairly than resolve the underlying points.