Federal prosecutors in Manhattan filed another indictment against FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried Monday, dropping another count against him.
Prosecutors had previously indicated their plans to drop the one count of conspiracy to make unlawful campaign contributions against Bankman-Fried last month in a letter to the court.
"The Government has been informed that The Bahamas notified the United States earlier today that The Bahamas did not intend to extradite the defendant on the campaign contributions count. Accordingly, in keeping with its treaty obligations to The Bahamas, the Government does not intend to proceed to trial on the campaign contributions count," prosecutors wrote in the July letter.
This is the second time prosecutors are culling charges that Bankman-Fried will face at his trial -— set for October — due to diplomacy issues with the Bahamas, where he was arrested last year.
Prosecutors opted in June to sever five other charges against Bankman-Fried that were not included in his extradition from the Bahamas.
Bankman-Fried still faces seven counts, including fraud charges and money laundering, connected to the alleged yearslong scheme to defraud FTX and Alameda Research lenders and investors.
Prosecutors maintain that Bankman-Fried conducted an illegal campaign finance scheme in connection to the charges that are moving forward to trial.
"The defendant's use of customer deposits to conduct a political influence campaign was part of the wire fraud scheme charged in the original indictment. And as part of the originally charged money laundering scheme, the defendant also concealed the source of his fraudulent proceeds through political straw donations," the filing, docketed last week, said.
