Sam Bankman-Fried is currently awaiting trial with Doordash as his only source of comfort, as his lawyers work to make his trial as easy as possible.
Due to his previous actions nearly causing his bail to be reversed and resulting in a ban from most of the internet and video games, SBF’s lawyers have been working for countless hours to make his trial less severe, as it could result in a lengthy prison sentence.
Attempt to Dismiss Fraud Charges
On May 8th, SBF’s legal team filed a motion to dismiss several charges against him, including bribery, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud, running an unlicensed money transmitter, and improper political contributions. The motion is based on SBF’s voluntary extradition to the US from the Bahamas and argues that additional charges after extradition go against US court precedent.
“Thus, the plain terms of the Extradition Treaty require that the Government obtain the express consent of the Bahamas to prosecute Mr. Bankman-Fried on any new charges brought after Mr. Bankman-Fried’s extradition—silence cannot suffice for consent. […] The defense understands the Government has informed the Bahamas of the new charges added in the S3 Indictment and S5 Indictment, but the Bahamas has not consented to those charges.”
SBF’s lawyers hope that this request would remove the charges from the trial set for October 2nd, but the charges could be filed again shortly after if the motion is granted.
It remains to be seen how the motion will play out with the information provided by Gary Wang and Caroline Ellison, who have both entered plea deals with the US government, potentially giving prosecutors more evidence to file new charges against SBF.
