Sam Bankman-Fried to have campaign donation charge dropped: Prosecutors

The FTX co-founder may be able to face one less charge relating to actions surrounding his alleged mismanagement of the cryptocurrency exchange.

United States prosecutors are expected to drop one of the charges against FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried, which had alleged he conspired to make unlawful campaign contributions.

In a July 26 letter to District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said the government was informed by The Bahamas that it did not agree to extradite Bankman-Fried on the charge, and thus prosecutors would subsequently not carry it forward to trial.

“The Bahamas did not intend to extradite the defendant on the campaign contributions count,” Williams wrote in the letter. “In keeping with its treaty obligations to The Bahamas, the Government does not intend to proceed to trial on the campaign contributions count.”

The charge was one Bankman-Fried had previously contested saying it was made after his extradition agreement from The Bahamas and was in violation of a treaty between the two countries.

Bankman-Fried faced 13 charges, eight original charges were unsealed in December which included the charge the government now intends to drop. An extra five were added in superseding indictments in February and March 2023.

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The government split the charges into separate trials slated to take place in October 2023 and March 2024 due to prosecutors requesting a waiver from Bahamian authorities to try Bankman-Fried on the five additional charges imposed after his extradition.

After the charge is dropped the former FTX chief will face a total of 12 charges which include various allegations of fraud and fraud conspiracy, money laundering and bribing Chinese officials. Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to all charges

In a July 26 hearing, prosecutors requested to revoke Bankman-Fried’s bail alleging he intimidated and tried to publicly discredit former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison by leaking her private journals to The New York Times.

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