Prosecutors will not pursue a second trial against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.
The Associated Press reports:
A second trial of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried on charges not in the cryptocurrency fraud case presented to a jury that convicted him in November is not necessary, prosecutors told a judge Friday.
This comes after a jury convicted the 31-year-old Brankman-Fried, in early November, of several crimes.
CNBC reports:
Bankman-Fried, the 31-year old son of two Stanford legal scholars and graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was convicted of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud against FTX customers and against Alameda Research lenders, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit commodities fraud against FTX investors, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
This followed the collapse of FTX and Alameda.
Next up is the sentencing phase of the case. Bankman-Fried is facing more than 100 years of imprisonment.
In the meantime, a question that has arisen is whether or not the prosecution would pursue a second case against Bankman-Fried.
The Associate Press explains why a second trial was being considered, writing, "Last spring, prosecutors withdrew some charges they had brought against Bankman-Fried because the charges had not been approved as part of his extradition from the Bahamas in December 2022. They said the charges could be brought at a second trial to occur sometime in 2024."
The outlet goes on to report that "the charges that were temporarily dropped included conspiracy to make unlawful campaign contributions, conspiracy to bribe foreign officials, and two other conspiracy counts. He also was charged with securities fraud and commodities fraud."
The prosecution, however, has now decided not to pursue this second trial.
It appears that, essentially, the prosecution is not pursuing a second trial because they do not have a lot of new evidence to present to the court.
CNBC reports:
In a note to Judge Lewis Kaplan on Friday, the U.S. government explained that the decision to forego a second set of proceedings had to do with the fact that much of the evidence that would have been presented in a second trial had already been submitted to the Court during Bankman-Fried’s first criminal trial.
Instead, the prosecution has asked Kaplan to consider the evidence that would have been presented at the second trial when deciding what sentence to impose on Bankman-Fried.
Kaplan is currently scheduled to sentence Bankman-Fried on Mach 28, 2024.
