NEW YORK — Sam Bankman-Fried won a Bahamian court order temporarily blocking that nation’s government from consenting to charges that were added to his U.S. indictment after the FTX co-founder’s December extradition to New York.
Bankman-Fried has argued in Manhattan federal court that bribery, campaign finance and other counts added in March and February must be dismissed because they were not included in his agreement to return from the Bahamas to face U.S. charges. New York federal prosecutors have said they can proceed with the new charges with the Bahamian attorney general’s consent, but Bankman-Fried moved to block that with a separate action filed there.
Bahamian Justice Loren Klein on Tuesday ruled in Bankman-Fried’s favor, saying he was entitled to be heard in a court proceeding on whether the attorney general should consent to the new U.S. charges. Denying him that would be “procedurally unfair,” the judge said.
It’s unclear how the Bahamas decision will affect the U.S. prosecution, which is set to go to trial in October. Bankman-Fried, who is free on a $250 million bond, won’t be required to attend any Bahamas hearing in person, but the new proceeding raises the prospect of delay to his U.S. case.
The Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office, which is prosecuting Bankman-Fried, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. In an earlier response to Bankman-Fried’s argument in the U.S. court, the government said it would drop the additional charges if the Bahamas didn’t give consent.
A spokesman for Bankman-Fried declined to comment.
Prior to his extradition, Bankman-Fried was charged in an indictment accusing him of orchestrating a yearslong fraud at FTX. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan added more counts in two superseding indictments, most recently charging him with paying Chinese officials $40 million in bribes to unfreeze accounts at Alameda Research, FTX’s affiliated hedge fund. He currently faces 13 counts.
Bankman-Fried, who ran his crypto empire from Nassau, contends he can only be tried on those charges to which he agreed to be extradited. His lawyers are set to make that argument on Thursday in a hearing before U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan.
Bankman-Fried made his filing in the Bahamian court on June 7, a day after the attorney general asserted in an email that the issue would be resolved between the two governments.
The case is U.S. v. Bankman-Fried, 22-cr-673, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).
