US
prosecutors in court documents filed on Monday opposed pre-trial motions
filed by FTX Co-Founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyers to dismiss several of the
thirteen charges against him. In one of the filings, the prosecutors said the motions were “meritless”.
In late
2022, Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas over the collapse of the now-bankrupt
cryptocurrency exchange, FTX. The arrest came after criminal charges were filed
against him in the United States. Some of the charges include conspiracy to commit wire, bank and
securities frauds, to operate an unlicensed money transmitting business, commit
money laundering and make unlawful political contributions.
In March,
prosecutors hit the disgraced entrepreneur with an additional charge:
conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt
Practices Act. He is alleged to have paid
$40 million in bribes to Chinese officials to unfreeze certain accounts
belonging to FTX’s sister trading firm Alameda Research.
In early
May, Bankman-Fried lawyers filed pre-trial motions to dismiss several of the charges,
including those related to conspiracy to commit wire fraud on FTX customers and
Alameda lenders.However,
the motions did not counter the securities fraud and money laundering charges against the former FTX CEO.
Meanwhile, the lawyersargue that the indictment against
Bankman-Fried includes extra charges…
