Court Rejects FTX Founder SBF’s Plea To Dismiss Criminal Charges

• Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) has been accused of running a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme.
• The motion to split out illegal political donations was also turned down.

Judge Lewis Kaplan refused Sam Bankman-Fried’s petition to throw out or sever most of the allegations in his thirteen-count criminal indictment, dealing a huge blow. Sam Bankman-Fried is the founder of FTX and Alameda Research.

Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) has been accused of running a multibillion-dollar Ponzi scheme using his crypto businesses. Judge Kaplan has upheld all of the allegations against SBF. Including those that were added following his extradition from The Bahamas.

Too Early to Dismiss

SBF’s claims that the charges violated the “rule of specialty” were rejected by Judge Kaplan because the organization lacked standing to do so. Furthermore, The Bahamas did not protest the additional accusations, therefore they were not dropped.

The motion to split out count 12, which dealt with illegal political donations, was also turned down. Judge Kaplan disagreed with SBF’s contentions that this accusation was unrelated to or not part of a similar conspiracy with the other counts and that it would unfairly prejudice the trial.

As for SBF’s argument that the government failed to identify an offense in ten of the thirteen counts, Kaplan brushed it aside, saying that dismissal at this point would be “an ‘extraordinary remedy.’ SBF is accused of misappropriating billions of dollars in consumer deposits from his cryptocurrency exchange and utilizing them for his own benefit, speculative investments, and charity gifts.

On the other hand, FTX is starting a new chapter after a difficult time in its development. The corporation is relaunching its main platform after a disastrous failure in 2021. John J. Ray III, who took the helm during the bankruptcy, has verified that the relaunch of the FTX exchange has begun.

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