WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES — Former FTX chief Sam Bankman-Fried asked a US federal court Monday to toss out most of the charges he faces over the collapse of his crypto exchange last year.
In a pre-trial motion, lawyers for Bankman-Fried asked the US District Court for the Southern District of New York to dismiss 10 of the 13 charges against him, arguing that in some of the charges prosecutors failed to “state an offense” or to “allege a valid property right.”
The disgraced crypto currency highflyer has pleaded not guilty to fraud, conspiracy and money laundering charges.
Extradited to the United States in December from the Bahamas and put under house arrest, Bankman-Fried faces potentially dozens of years in prison. His trial is scheduled to begin in October in New York.
FTX and its sister trading house Alameda Research went bankrupt in November, dissolving a virtual trading business that at one point had been valued by the market at $32 billion.
Prosecutors allege Bankman-Fried cheated investors and misused funds that belonged to FTX and Alameda Research customers.
Bankman-Fried had once appeared on the covers of magazines, drew in huge investments from prominent fund managers and venture capitalists, and was touted as a future Warren Buffett.
He was arrested at his Nassau apartment on 12 December at the request of the federal prosecutors in New York.
— AFP
