A federal judge has rejected Sam Bankman-Fried’s effort to dismiss most of the criminal charges against him, writing in an opinion on Tuesday that “the arguments are either moot or without merit.”
The FTX founder argued that prosecutors overstepped in their 13-count indictment, either by improperly interpreting fraud statutes or by violating terms of an extradition agreement with the Bahamas, where the former billionaire was based prior to his December arrest.
In his opinion, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan of Manhattan wrote that Bankman-Fried lacked standing to argue that the United States’ extradition treaty with the Bahamas had been violated. Kaplan added that some of Bankman-Fried’s legal analysis was simply “mistaken.”
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The 31-year-old was originally hit with an eight-count indictment in December. Prosecutors later added five more counts, which included allegations related to bank fraud along with claims that Bankman-Fried had tried to “bribe one or more Chinese government officials.”
Earlier this month, the judge agreed to sever the five post-extradition counts into a separate trial due to concerns about whether extradition issues might delay the case.
As detailed in Tuesday’s opinion, Bankman-Fried is accused of perpetrating a massive fraud at his crypto exchange, FTX, and his hedge fund, Alameda Research. The government has argued that he used billions of dollars in misappropriated funds “to support the operations and investments of FTX and Alameda; to fund speculative venture investments; to make charitable contributions; and to enrich himself.”
Bankman-Fried, who has pleaded not guilty, is currently under home detention at his parents’ house in California. He has irked prosecutors and the judge on multiple occasions since his arrest, including in February, when he used a virtual private network to access the internet—stirring alarm over whether he was trying to circumvent oversight of his online activity. (Bankman-Fried said he was just trying to watch the Super Bowl.) The judge then placed additional restrictions on the terms of his confinement.
Bankman-Fried’s first trial is expected to begin in the fall.
