US prosecutors to drop new prices in opposition to Bankman-Fried in Oct trial

(Reuters) – U.S. federal prosecutors stated late Wednesday that they’d not instantly proceed with 5 prices of overseas bribery, financial institution fraud and conspiracy in opposition to indicted founding father of bankrupt cryptocurrency alternate FTX Sam Bankman-Fried.

The fees weren’t in Bankman-Fried’s preliminary eight-count indictment final December, which targeted on the collapse of FTX, however had been added after his extradition. FTX was based mostly within the Bahamas.

A Bahamas courtroom on Tuesday briefly barred the nation’s authorities from agreeing to let U.S. prosecutors pursue a part of their prison case in opposition to Bankman-Fried.

Within the courtroom submitting on Wednesday, United States Lawyer Damian Williams cited uncertainty round a call from the Bahamas, and requested Choose Lewis Kaplan to schedule trial on these 5 counts for the primary quarter of 2024.

Final month, U.S. prosecutors in Manhattan stated they’d drop the 5 prices in opposition to the one-time billionaire if the Caribbean nation didn’t conform to them.

He might spend a long time in jail if convicted at a trial set to begin on Oct. 2.

U.S. District Choose Kaplan is anticipated to listen to arguments on Thursday.