FTX Prosecutors May Drop Criminal Charges Against Sam Bankman-Fried

• U.S. prosecutors have stated that they may drop some of the criminal charges filed against Sam Bankman-Fried. 
• The charges would be dropped if the Bahamas deems that they violate the terms of the FTX founder’s extradition. 
• Additional charges, including bank fraud conspiracy and foreign bribery, were added to SBF’s indictment after extradition. 
• The prosecutors have also urged the judge to deny Bankman-Fried’s motion to have the criminal charges dismissed. 

Prosecutors handling the case against FTX’s disgraced founder Sam Bankman-Fried have stated that they may drop some of the criminal charges filed against him. In a recent filing with the Manhattan Federal Court, U.S. prosecutors stated that they would not pursue some criminal counts if they violated the terms of Bankman-Fried’s extradition from the Bahamas. 

FTX Prosecutors Will Drop Charges If The Bahamas Objects

According to a report by WSJ, the United States Department of Justice stated in the court filing that it would drop the three additional criminal charges that were added to Sam Bankman-Fried’s criminal counts after his extradition from The Bahamas in December last year. The court filing was to express the U.S. government’s opposition to SBF’s motion to dismiss the criminal charges based on the rule of specialty. 

Specialty is a principle of international law, which provides that a person who is extradited can be prosecuted or sentenced for the offense(s) for which extradition was granted and not for any other crime committed before extradition took place. Lawyers representing Bankman-Fried requested District Judge Lewis to dismiss the charges filed after the FTX founder’s extradition, which included conspiracy to commit bank fraud and conspiracy to bribe a Chinese official.

The Justice Department urged Judge Kaplan to deny SBF’s motion, describing it as “meritless”. However, the prosecutors stated that they would drop the additional charges if the Bahamas were to deem them a violation of Bankman-Fried’s extradition terms. The federal prosecutors are awaiting approval from the Bahamian government to proceed with the new criminal charges. 

The government will proceed on the new charges…if The Bahamas consents to trial on these charges, and will not proceed on those counts if The Bahamas denies the Government’s request”

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