Federal prosecutors agreed to drop five of the 13 criminal charges against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried if the court would set a second trial for those charges early next year.
The move is a small win for Bankman-Fried, who was initially charged with eight federal counts of fraud and conspiracy when he was extradited from the Bahamas in December. Following his return to US shores, federal prosecutors tacked on five more charges. He has pleaded not guilty to all of them.
Still, the original eight charges are among the most serious against Bankman-Fried, who is scheduled to stand trial in October. Prosecutors allege that Bankman-Fried, 31, orchestrated a yearslong scheme involving securities fraud, campaign finance violations and money laundering. If convicted on those charges, he could face around 100 years in prison.
By agreeing to temporarily drop the five more recent charges, prosecutors told Judge Lewis Kaplan that because of a legal review from a Bahamian court, they would avoid they would avoid a potential monthslong delay for Bankman-Fried's trial, scheduled for October 2. They proposed that the judge "sever" those new charges and set them for trial early in 2024.
Bankman-Fried and his legal team were in court in New York on Thursday to argue for all charges against him to be dropped.
—CNN's Allison Morrow contributed to this article.
