Bankman-Fried prosecutors may show jury evidence of political donations, judge rules

NEW YORK - Prosecutors may show the jury at Sam Bankman-Fried's trial starting next week evidence of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange founder's political contributions, a judge ruled onSaltWire's Atlantic regional weather forecast for September 26, 2023 | SaltWireNEW YORK - Prosecutors may show the jury at Sam Bankman-Fried's trial starting next week evidence of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange founder's political contributions, a judge ruled on Tuesday.

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan had initially charged Bankman-Fried, 31, with conspiring to break U.S. campaign finance laws. But they later dropped that charge after the Bahamas, where Bankman-Fried was arrested in December, said they never intended to extradite him on it. But in a written order on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan said evidence of the former billionaire's political donations were"intertwined inextricably" with charges he defrauded FTX customers by stealing billions of dollars in their deposits.

"Evidence that the defendant spent FTX customer funds on political contributions is direct evidence of the wire fraud scheme because it is relevant to establishing the defendant's motive and allegedly fraudulent intent," Kaplan wrote.

Coin Coin Latest News, Coin Coin Headlines

Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.

Sam Bankman-Fried's trial to test dueling explanations for collapse of crypto exchangeIn U.S. prosecutors' telling, Sam Bankman-Fried embezzled money from depositors in his FTX cryptocurrency exchange ever since he launched it in 2019, and the resulting shortfall led directly to its collapse as crypto prices swooned last year. But in his own version and in explanations put forth by his lawyers, Bankman-Fried thought FTX, like a bank, could make investments with customers' money as long as they were able to withdraw it - and he did not know that actions taken by his closest colleagues had jeopardized the availability of funds. Over the course of six weeks starting on Oct. 3, a federal jury in Manhattan is due to weigh these dueling narratives during Bankman-Fried's criminal trial on fraud charges, before determining whether the 31-year-old former billionaire is guilty on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy.
Source: YahooFinanceCA - 🏆 47. / 63 Read more »