After Sam Bankman-Fried was extradited to the United States, the Department of Justice amended charges against him, and a district judge ordered a second trial.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the co-founder of FTX, will go on trial twice for allegedly mismanaging the cryptocurrency exchange on a total of 13 counts, including fraud, conspiracy to commit fraud, and bribery.
United States District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan determined on June 15th that five charges will be split off into a second trial set for March 11, 2024, instead of all charges being tried together on October 2 as originally planned.
![Sam Bankman-Fried to Face Two Criminal Trials for Alleged Fraud image 133](https://i0.wp.com/nosisnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/image-133.png?resize=569%2C670&ssl=1)
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The Department of Justice (DOJ) requested a waiver from Bahamian authorities to try Bankman-Fried on the additional accusations brought against him after his extradition from the Bahamas, and this is how the charges were separated. The defense team for Bankman-Fried argued that these accusations couldn’t be proven because the crimes occurred after extradition.
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On June 14, DOJ attorneys made the decision to move forward with the eight counts they had initially brought against Bankman-Fried because they anticipated a protracted legal procedure if they waited for the Bahamas to rule on a petition.
The next trial, set for March, will center on allegations of conspiring to commit bribery, conspiring to run an unregistered money-transfer business, conspiring to commit bank fraud, and conspiring to commit derivatives and securities fraud.
The remaining counts include numerous accusations of money laundering as well as alleged activities at FTX and Alameda Research involving alleged wire, derivatives, and securities fraud and conspiracy. The two trials will focus on the numerous accusations of wrongdoing against Bankman-Fried, underscoring the difficulty of the situation and the possible repercussions a conviction could have.
Related: Sam Bankman-Fried to propose revised bail package ‘by next week’