US prosecutors to issue superseding indictment against Sam Bankman-Fried next week US prosecutors to issue superseding indictment against Sam Bankman-Fried next week
The indictment will include the charge of conducting an illegal political influence campaign via straw donors as part of the larger wire fraud scheme.
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Updated: Aug. 8, 2023 at 9:54 pm UTC
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U.S. prosecutors intend to seek a superseding indictment against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried in the week of Aug. 14 that will include the charge of conducting an illegal campaign finance scheme, according to a letter filed with the court on Aug. 8.
The U.S. government intends to pursue seven charges against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried in the upcoming criminal trial in October and will not drop the illegal political campaign financing charge.
“The superseding indictment will make clear that Mr. Bankman-Fried remains charged with conducting an illegal campaign finance scheme as part of the fraud and money laundering schemes originally charged.”
The prosecutors said in the letter that Bankman-Fried’s use of stolen customer funds to finance an illegal “political influence campaign” is part of the original wire fraud scheme indictment filed against him.
Furthermore, they argued that SBF also tried to hide the stolen money through “political straw donations.”
According to the letter:
“The evidence of the defendant’s campaign finance conduct is admissible at trial as direct proof of the Trial Charges.”
SBF’s lawyers have previously argued that many of the charges against the former billionaire suffer from flaws and contradictions, including the charges related to political donations.
U.S. prosecutors initially intended to file 13 charges against SBF but eventually dropped five of the charges after the Bahamian judiciary raised concerns over charges that were not part of the original extradition agreement.
Prosecutors said at the time that they would punt the remaining charges to 2024.
There were concerns that prosecutors may also forgo the political campaign financing charge due to similar reasons, which have now been laid to rest.
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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.