SBF trial locked in for October after court rejects pre-trial motion to dismiss SBF trial locked in for October after court rejects pre-trial motion to dismiss
The court said that after hearing all of the arguments related to the pre-trial motions, it has determined that they are "either moot or without merit."
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Updated: Jul. 5, 2023 at 3:35 am UTC
Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
The U.S. Southern District Court of New York rejected all pre-trial motions filed by FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) — including a motion to dismiss the case or “sever” certain charges.
District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who is overseeing the case, made the ruling on June 27, according to court filings.
The court said that after hearing all of the arguments related to the pre-trial motions, it has determined that they are “either moot or without merit.”
The disgraced crypto exchange founder is now set to face trial starting October 2.
Seven pre-trial motions
SBF’s defense filed seven pre-trial motions on May 8, which included an overall motion to dismiss the trial, as well as motions to sever the charges levied against the FTX founder after he was extradited from the Bahamas.
The defense argued that these charges should not be levied due to suffering from “multiple legal flaws.” These included charges related to bribing foreign government officials and illicit campaign financing.
In order to ensure the trial would not be delayed by legalities related to the post-extradition charges, U.S. prosecutors said on June 15 that they would withdraw them for the time being.
They added that the severed charges would not be forgotten and would be levied against SBF in 2024 after the first trial concludes. However, prosecutors refused to drop the charge related to the improper financing of political campaigns despite it being omitted from the warrant of surrender issued in the Bahamas.
The court upheld the charge and rejected all of the pre-trial motions, excluding the ones related to the post-extradition charges that were dropped.
Skeletons in the closet
New evidence publicized by the FTX recovery team led by CEO John Ray III on June 22 revealed that the exchange’s leadership knowingly commingled and misused customer funds since day one.
The documents paint a picture of a blatant misuse of power and a clear disregard for customers as the leadership misappropriated billions in customer and corporate funds for personal gain.
The leadership — including SBF, Gary Wang and Nishad Singh — used customer and corporate funds like their personal piggy bank — spending hundreds of millions on speculative trading, political donations and luxury properties.
According to the filing:
“The FTX Group commingled customer deposits and corporate funds, and misused them with abandon.”
The recovery team is set to publish its next report in August, which should reveal more about the inner machinations of FTX and its epic downfall.
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Assad Jafri
AJ, a passionate journalist since Yemen's 2011 Arab Spring, has honed his skills worldwide for over a decade. Specializing in financial journalism, he now focuses on crypto reporting.
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FTX
FTX is a defunct cryptocurrency exchange, currently in bankruptcy proceedings, that was founded by Sam Bankman-Fried and Zixiao “Gary” Wang in May 2019.
Sam Bankman-Fried is the former CEO, and co-founder of defunct crypto exchange FTX and Alameda Research.