United States prosecutors have reportedly dropped a second trial against Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
According to a Reuters report published on Dec. 29, many stakeholders hope to resolve the trial as quickly as possible.
Referring to a court filing, prosecutors stated that the public interest “weighs particularly heavy here,” as victims are eagerly awaiting details about compensation for their FTX accounts following its collapse in November 2022.
For me the second trial was less about how much worse things could get for SBF and more about potentially finding more enablers who deserved to be revealed
— @bft.wtf on bluesky (@BennettTomlin) December 30, 2023
Furthermore, it stated that there wouldn’t be enough new evidence to present, as most of the evidence had already been revealed during the first trial. As per court documents:
"[...] a second trial would not affect the United States Sentencing Guidelines range for the defendant, because the Court can already consider all of this conduct as relevant conduct when sentencing him for the counts that he was found guilty of at the initial trial."
Prosecutors also pointed to additional evidence presented in court during SBF trial in October, including evidence of conspiracy to bribe Chinese officials and that he made false statements to a United States bank as part of a fraudulent scheme. “The Court may also consider evidence of the defendant’s commission of these crimes at his sentencing.”
Related: What’s next for the ‘crypto king’ Sam Bankman-Fried?
On Nov. 3, Bankman-Fried was found guilty of all seven fraud charges by a jury in his criminal trial after four hours of deliberations, including two counts of wire fraud, two counts of wire fraud conspiracy, one count of securities fraud, one count of commodities fraud conspiracy and one count of money laundering conspiracy.
Meanwhile, Bankman-Fried’s request for a four to six-week adjournment on his sentencing hearing was declined.
Judge Lewis Kaplan did not allow any changes to the schedule. He pointed out that the defense did not object to the sentencing date when it was set. It was also outlined that Bankman-Fried has already received one extension for filing sentencing submissions.
Bankman-Fried’s sentencing date is scheduled for March 28, 2024.