A Bahamian Justice stated it would be “procedurally unfair” to deny Sam Bankman-Fried the chance to put forth his arguments relating to the new charges.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced co-founder of crypto exchange FTX, won a small legal victory on June 13 after the Bahamian court temporarily blocked the new charges in his U.S. indictment. A report by Bloomberg outlines that the court order restricts the Bahamian attorney general from consenting to the recently added charges, which include allegations of bribery and campaign finance violations.
Bankman-Fried argues that these charges were not part of his original agreement when he was extradited to the United States.
US prosecutors introduced four new charges against him in February, expanding the initial eight counts of fraud charges. One of the added charges relates to illegal political donations, while another accuses him of paying $40 million in bribes to Chinese officials to unfreeze accounts at Alameda Research. The total number of charges against him is now 13.
Siding with Bankman-Fried, Bahamian Justice Loren Klein stated it would be “procedurally unfair” to deny him the chance to put forth his arguments relating to the new charges.
Read more: FTX 2.0’ may be underway, legal billing document hints
Bankman-Fried ran his operations from the Bahamas and maintains that he can only be tried for the charges to which he agreed during the extradition process. His legal team is scheduled to present this argument before US District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan.
While the impact of the Bahamian court’s decision remains uncertain, the trial is scheduled to take place in October. Currently released on a $250 million bond, Bankman-Fried is not required to attend the Bahamas hearing in person, but the additional proceedings raise the possibility of a delay in his US case.
Is there any hope of redemption for FTX?
As it stands today, FTX is undergoing complex bankruptcy procedures, but there is reason to believe that a revival of the exchange is underway.
In April, FTX attorney Andy Dietderich declared at a Delaware court hearing that the FTX “dumpster fire is out“. He also confirmed that FTX was negotiating options with stakeholders for restart, with a decision to come by late June.
A new legal billing document revealed in May further confirmed this.
It remains unclear what a recovery would mean for customers who have been unable to access their deposits since the collapse.
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