FTX: Why SBF’s case may not be dismissed soon

• FTX prosecutors have urged the judge overseeing the case to dismiss Sam Bankman-Fried’s motion to dismiss criminal charges.
• The disgraced founder argued that the charges against him were rushed.

The prosecutors representing the government in the lawsuit against FTX’s disgraced founder Sam Bankman-Fried have urged the judge to dismiss a motion filed by the latter to get the criminal charges against him dismissed.

The prosecutors’ response comes three weeks after Bankman-Fried requested U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan to dismiss most charges levelled against him. They alleged that the charges stemmed from a rushed judgment in the aftermath of FTX’s collapse in November 2022. 

Prosecutors confident of SBF indictment  

According to a report by Reuters, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York filed a response in Manhattan Federal Court. They conveyed the government’s objection to Sam Bankman-Fried’s motion to dismiss criminal charges based on the rule of specialty.

The rule of specialty is a doctrine under international law. It states that a person who is extradited to a country to stand trial for certain criminal offenses can only be tried for those offenses, not for any other pre-extradition offenses. 

On 8 May, 2023, Bankman-Fried requested Judge Kaplan to dismiss the criminal charges against him, which include 13 counts of fraud, conspiracy, making illegal campaign contributions and foreign bribery.

Lawyers representing the disgraced FTX founder argued that the allegations listed in the prosecution’s indictment were insufficient and legally defective. Bankman-Fried has denied stealing customer funds and maintained that the collapse of FTX and sister firm Alameda Research was due to improper risk management measures. 

In their court filing, the prosecutors described SBF’s motion to dismiss charges as meritless. The filing read:

“The indictment sufficiently alleges that the defendant and his co-conspirators made false and misleading representations to lenders relating to Alameda’s financial condition. No more specificity is required,”

Judge Kaplan will hear oral arguments in the matter during the next hearing, scheduled for 15 June, 2023.