The U.S. government is seeking a speciality waiver from the Bahamian government to continue to prosecute Sam Bankman-Fried on the additional charges laid out in the superseding indictment.
In a court filing on Monday, prosecutors conceded that the Bahamas was the only party that had the standing to object to the additional counts against the FTX founder.
They also noted that the U.S. treaty with the Bahamas does not place limits on charging a defendant with new offenses post-extradition – something that formed the basis of Bankman-Fried’s attorneys’ argument to have them dismissed.
Earlier this month, his attorneys submitted motions to dismiss all but three of the 12 charges against him. The lawyers argued that the additional charges, including those related to the alleged bribing of Chinese officials and violation of campaign finance laws, violated the extradition treaty with the Bahamas.
The prosecutors claim that the campaign finances charge was an “inadvertent omission” from the original indictment. However, they maintained that the validity of all charges remains in place and Bankman-Fried did not have the legal standing to have them dismissed.
It is now up to the Bahamas government to waive the right to object to three charges – conspiracy to commit bank fraud (Count 9), conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business (Count 10) and conspiracy to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (Count 13).
A hearing on the motion to dismiss these charges has been scheduled for June 15.
Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him, including the additional ones laid out in the superseding indictment. Other members of his inner circle, including former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang, have pleaded guilty to the charges against them and are assisting the prosecution with their investigation into FTX’s collapse.
