United States prosecutors have decided not to try Sam Bankman-Fried on the remaining charges he faces, including charges of foreign bribery, bank fraud, and more. Prosecutors, led by U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams, have also decided not to pursue a charge of unlawful political donations that was severed from the original indictment due to a dispute with the Bahamas over Bankman-Fried’s extradition.
In a letter explaining the decision, prosecutors noted that evidence concerning several of the charges was already presented during Bankman-Fried’s original trial, in which he was found guilty on all seven counts of fraud and conspiracy related to his leadership of FTX and its sister trading firm, Alameda Research. That evidence may be considered at sentencing, even though a jury was never given a chance to weigt in, the prosecutors explain.
“Proceeding with sentencing in March 2024 without the delay that would be caused by a second trial would advance the public’s interest in a timely and just resolution of the case,” the prosecutors wrote.
As such, certain information may never come to light, like exactly how Thai sex workers figured in to Alameda’s plan to unfreeze its Chinese accounts, a situation that ultimately resulted in Alameda paying a bribe to Chinese government officials, according to the testimony of star witness and former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison.
However, the crypto community seems largely concerned with one dropped charge in particular: the charge of unlawful political donations, given Bankman-Fried’s well-publicized donations to large numbers of both Democratic and Republican politicians. Prosecutors alleged that Bankman-Fried used customer funds for $100 million in political donations.
“No one is even surprised. THAT is a bigger problem than the fraud itself. It shows how normalized corruption has become,” declared Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who is running as an Independent in the 2024 race, in a quote-post on X referencing the decision.
Elon Musk, in a reply to that same quoted post, said simply “!!”.
Coinbase’s Chief Legal Officer, Paul Grewal, called the decision to drop the charge a “miscarriage of justice” in a thread on X. “The public interest in a public airing of charges almost always matters. Campaign finance charges are at the very top of this list,” wrote Grewal. “What politicians and others knew what and when are critical questions that deserve answers.”
Bankman-Fried’s sentencing is currently scheduled for March 28, 2024.
