Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried Files to Dismiss 10 of 13 US Charges

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (nicknamed SBF) filed a pretrial motion late Monday in an attempt to dismiss 10 of the 13 charges currently laid against him.

The charges include wire fraud, conspiracy to misuse customer funds, conspiracy to commit money laundering.

He is also charged with conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States and commit campaign finance violations. They allege he (illegally) bribed chinese officials with $40 million too.

Bankman-Fried’s legal team from Cohen & Gresser LLP, argued that the government was rushing to conclusions and “improperly seeking” to turn “civil and regulatory issues into federal crimes.”

The attorneys from Cohen & Gresser LLP stated that there are several legal issues with the charges. They argue that four counts against Bankman-Fried were not in the Bahamas’ Warrant of Surrender, which permitted his extradition to the US, and therefore lacked the Bahamian government’s approval.

Bankman-Fried’s counsel also worried that he would face “undue prejudice” in the eyes of the jury if the charges of illegal campaign contributions and foreign bribery weren’t tried separately from his other charges.

They also dove into specific reasons why they believe some charges should be dropped. For example, Bankman-Fried’s camp says that his bank fraud charge doesn’t hold up. They said that while he lied on a US bank application to open an account that would receive FTX customer funds, he didn’t actually deprive them of “moneys, funds, credits, assets, securities” or cause them “economic harm.”

The lawyers employed similar arguments to challenge Bankman-Fried’s charges of defrauding investors and wire fraud.

They boiled down their argument in the filing, writing: “Simply making a false statement, by itself, does not constitute wire fraud unless it is made for the purpose of obtaining money or property from the victim of the fraud,” Bankman-Fried’s lawyers wrote.”

It’s hard to imagine this strategy will be successful, considering the monumental economic harm the collapse of FTX caused, however it is for the judge to decide.

Even if he succeeds in having these charges dismissed, he would still be in hot water. He also faces lawsuits from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

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