SBF's lawyers argue that additional charges “violate the Treaty’s rule of specialty provision.”
Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the founder of now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, is striving to get ten criminal charges against him thrown out before his trial scheduled for October.
The legal team of Bankman-Fried is on the offensive, pushing to dismiss every charge except conspiracy to commit commodities fraud (count 5), conspiracy to commit securities fraud (count 6), and conspiracy to commit money laundering (count 11).
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The aspirations of SBF's legal team were revealed in the legal documents filed in the southern district court of New York on May 8th.
Molly White, a crypto researcher, speculated that the move to dismiss the charges was based on the fact that additional charges were added after SBF's extradition agreement.
Initially, SBF was extradited from the Bahamas to the US to face eight criminal charges, including fraud and money laundering allegations. However, his legal representatives argue that four of the five charges added since February “violates the Treaty’s rule of specialty provision.”
The "rule of specialty" dictates that the requesting state (the US in this case) can only try the extradited person (SBF) for the crimes for which they were deported. Sam Bankman-Fried's lawyers noted:
During the extradition proceedings in The Bahamas, it was the understanding of all parties in court, coram judice and the Court itself, that the specialty provisions applied notwithstanding the use of the simplified procedure. There was no waiver of the rule of specialty. To the contrary, there was an express acknowledgment that it applied.
The four additional charges involve conspiracy to commit bank fraud and other wire fraud allegations related to SBF's actions at FTX and Alameda. The most recent charge, added on March 28th, accuses SBF of bribing a Chinese government official with $40 million.
Moreover, SBF's attorneys are attempting to dismiss other charges, including "conspiracy to defraud the United States." They argue that these charges fail to state an adequate offense.
US District Judge Lewis Kaplan will preside over the hearing on June 15th to address the dismissal request, while prosecutors must submit their response by May 29th.
Despite other FTX and Alameda Research executives pleading guilty and agreeing to cooperate with prosecutors, SBF himself maintains his innocence. Since December, he has been under house arrest in his parent's home in Palo Alto.
In a recent development, Judge Lewis Kaplan approved tapping SBF's parents' phones to meet bail conditions, even though SBF's legal team requested a revision.
The ultimate fate of these charges remains uncertain, but the legal battle continues to unfold.
