The beginning of 2024 has brought interesting developments in the fraud case carried out by Sam Bankman-Fried. The United States justice system gave up carrying out a second trial against the former executive director of FTXwhere the aforementioned would face additional criminal charges to those that led to his arrest and first prosecution.
In a letter sent to Judge Lewis Kaplan (via Ars Technica), prosecutor Damian Williams reported that the Department of Justice has decided not move forward with the second judicial process against Sam Bankman-Fried. The reason? Avoid delays in the sentencing of the businessman, who has already been found guilty and faces a sentence of 110 years in prison.
A second trial against the former FTX leader could postpone the sentencing hearing against Sam Bankman-Fried, which is scheduled for next 28th March. It is worth mentioning that, last December, the defendant’s lawyers tried to delay it until May, but were unsuccessful.
Williams indicates that a second trial is unnecessary because there is a “strong public interest” in issuing a resolution against SBF. Likewise, he assures that practically all the evidence linked to the additional charges against the businessman was already presented during the original trial. Therefore, it would be redundant to reintroduce it in a separate judicial process.
The prosecutor tells Judge Kaplan that, if he believes it is appropriate, he can consider that material when defining the sentence for the charges for which Sam Bankman-Fried has already been convicted.
“The Government does not intend to proceed to trial on the additional charges. Proceeding to sentencing in March 2024 without the delay that a second trial would cause would promote the public interest in a timely and fair resolution of the case, as the delay in The sentence can leave the accused, as well as the victim, in limbo regarding the consequences of the conviction. […] The interest in avoiding delays weighs particularly heavily in this case, where the sentence will likely include confiscation and restitution orders for victims of the defendant’s crimes. “The Government has concluded that the public interest in a prompt resolution of this matter outweighs the interest in holding a separate trial.”
Letter from prosecutor Damian Williams to Judge Lewis Kaplan.
There will be no second trial against Sam Bankman-Fried in the United States
Sam Bankman-Fried was originally charged with 8 criminal counts. They included accusations of conspiracy, bank and securities fraud, money laundering, and illegal political contributions. Four additional charges were later filed, including bribery of Chinese officials.
However, the extradition agreement between the Bahamas and the United States prevented Sam Bankman-Fried from being tried on charges brought after his arrest. Likewise, the Bahamian justice system rejected the inclusion of the crime of illegal political contributions in the first trial. Therefore, he was first tried on 7 charges, while the remaining 5 would be dealt with separately.
The additional crimes Sam Bankman-Fried was charged with They would increase his hypothetical punishment to more than 150 years in prison. However, since these will not be addressed in a new trial, Judge Kaplan’s ruling will be based on the resolution of the original proceeding. If the former FTX leader is finally given the maximum sentence, the number of years will be an anecdote. The thing is, one way or another, he will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
What remains unclear is whether prosecutors can revisit the additional allegations and push for a new trial in the future. That is, the second judicial process does not remain in the air, but takes place after Judge Kaplan issues a sentence against Sam Bankman-Fried for the 7 original charges.
It would not be unusual for this to depend on how many years of punishment SBF received, or whether the businessman managed to appeal the sanction against him. If the Justice Department later resumes charges against the FTX co-founder, most likely not to happen before 2025.