Free Republic

Sam Bankman-Fried, who was convicted last month of stealing from customers of his now-bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange, will not face a second trial on separate charges in the case, including campaign finance violations. In a letter filed on Friday night in federal court in Manhattan, prosecutors said the 'strong public interest' in a prompt resolution of their case against the 31-year-old former billionaire outweighed the benefits of a second trial. Prosecutors said that interest 'weighs particularly heavily here,' given that Bankman-Fried's scheduled March 28 sentencing will likely include orders of forfeiture and restitution for victims of his crimes.

Former FTX general counsel Can Sun, who was a key witness in the Sam Bankman-Fried trial, and former Alameda Research software developer Armani Ferrante are building a Dubai-based exchange called Backpack Exchange. Two former colleagues of recently convicted Sam Bankman-Fried are building a new crypto exchange just days after their former CEO was found guilty on seven charges of fraud. FTX’s former general counsel, Can Sun, and former Alameda Research software developer Armani Ferrante have teamed up to start Trek Labs, a Dubai-based company that recently obtained a license from the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority, or VARA, which regulates digital...

A jury has found Sam Bankman-Fried guilty of all seven criminal counts against him. The former FTX CEO faces a maximum sentence of 115 years in prison. Bankman-Fried, the 31-year old son of two Stanford legal scholars and graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was convicted of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud against FTX customers and against Alameda Research lenders, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit commodities fraud against FTX investors, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He had pleaded not guilty to all charges. The trial, which began in early October, pitted the...

The monthlong trial of Sam Bankman-Fried wrapped up on Thursday, leaving the jury to decide the fate of the FTX founder. Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to criminal fraud charges tied to the collapse late late year of crypto exchange FTX and sister hedge fund Alameda Research. The prosecution’s key witnesses were former members of Bankman-Fried’s inner circle. A jury has found Sam Bankman-Fried guilty of all seven criminal counts against him. The former FTX CEO faces a maximum sentence of 115 years in prison. Bankman-Fried, the 31-year old son of two Stanford legal scholars and graduate of Massachusetts Institute of...

Tom Brady was paid $55 million for doing about a week’s worth of work total over a three-year period by disgraced cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried, according to a bestselling author. Michael Lewis, who wrote “Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon,” told CBS’ “60 Minutes” that the former FTX head Bankman-Fried, whose federal trial on fraud and money laundering charges is set to begin in Manhattan on Tuesday, splurged on endorsements from Brady, Stephen Curry, and Larry David. Bankman-Fried, who has pleaded not guilty, oversaw a $32 billion empire that collapsed after his firm allegedly used customer...

An amended indictment accused Bankman-Fried of directing two FTX executives to evade contribution limits by donating to Democrats and Republicans and to conceal where the money came from.Sam Bankman-Fried used money he stole from customers of his FTX cryptocurrency exchange to make more than $100 million in political campaign contributions before the 2022 U.S. midterm elections, federal prosecutors said on Monday.An amended indictment accused the 31-year-old former billionaire of directing two FTX executives to evade contribution limits by donating to Democrats and Republicans, and to conceal where the money came from.“He leveraged this influence, in turn, to lobby Congress and...

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was sent to jail Friday to await trial after a bail hearing for the fallen cryptocurrency wiz left a judge convinced that he had repeatedly tried to influence witnesses against him. U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan ordered Bankman-Fried’s bail revoked after prosecutors said he’d tried to harass a key witness in his fraud case last month when he showed a journalist her private writings and in January when he reached out to the general counsel for FTX with an encrypted communication. His lawyers insisted he shouldn’t be jailed for trying to protect his reputation against...

A federal judge revoked FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s bail and sent him to jail Friday, ending a monthslong battle between the Justice Department and the onetime crypto entrepreneur over his behavior while awaiting trial on fraud charges. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan said at a hearing in New York that Bankman-Fried pushed the limits of his bail conditions repeatedly. “There is probable cause to believe that the defendant has attempted to tamper with witnesses at least twice,” Kaplan said. The judge said he would allow Bankman-Fried’s lawyers to request that the defendant be allowed to spend time in his lawyers’...

How the S.D.N.Y. dropped charges against Sam Bankman-Fried out of campaign finance violations totaling several million, despite punishing me to the full extent of the law in the case of a minor violation.

He was charged with fraud and campaign finance violations by donating $90 million of customer deposits to political candidates and political action committees. He was extradited from the Bahamas to the United States, but the Caribbean nation later clarified that they did not intend the extradition to be on campaign charges. .....

The Department of Justice (DOJ) dropped a campaign finance charge against disgraced former crypto tycoon Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) on Wednesday night, according to a court document from the Southern District of New York.Authorities assert that SBF, co-founder of bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, and its associates, utilized customer deposits for $90 million in campaign contributions to around 300 candidates or political action committees, according to The New York Times. The DOJ’s letter to the New York court states that it is not pursuing the charge because The Bahamas did not plan to extradite SBF to the U.S. on it.“The Government has...

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) informed a federal judge late Wednesday it did “not intend to proceed” with a campaign finance charge against disgraced FTX founder and Democrat super donor Sam Bankman-Fried. Consultation with the Bahamas on the campaign finance charges in Bankman-Fried’s original extradition document last year were behind the decision as part of an effort to adhere to the legal obligations therein, Forbes reports. The campaign finance violation charge was among eight counts present in the DOJ’s original indictment—which also includes wire fraud, securities fraud and money laundering—in December.

Robert Francis "Beto" O'Rourke won praise last year after he pledged to return a massive campaign contribution from Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced cryptocurrency kingpin charged with defrauding customers out of billions of dollars. But campaign finance records show the failed political candidate has not lived up to that promise nearly eight months later. O'Rourke has kept $100,000 that Bankman-Fried donated to O'Rourke's failed gubernatorial campaign, according to campaign finance disclosures released this week. A spokesman for O'Rourke said in November that the campaign had returned an "unsolicited" $1 million donation from Bankman-Fried just before the Nov. 8 election. O'Rourke received...

NEW YORK, March 28 (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors on Tuesday unveiled a new indictment against Sam Bankman-Fried, charging the founder of now-bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange with conspiring to violate anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Federal prosecutors in Manhattan accused Bankman-Fried of directing the transfer of at least $40 million of cryptocurrency to benefit Chinese government officials. In a court filing, they asked U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan to arrange a court hearing so Bankman-Fried can be arraigned on the new, 13-count indictment.

Nishad Singh is third person in founder’s inner circle agreeing to cooperate with federal prosecutors ... The collapse of FTX has set off the largest crypto-related bankruptcy ever ... Singh said that in mid-2022 he learned that Mr. Bankman-Fried’s crypto hedge fund Alameda Research was borrowing FTX customer funds. By September 2022, Alameda was no longer able to repay the billions of dollars that it had taken from FTX, Mr. Singh said. He said that, at the direction of Mr. Bankman-Fried, he falsified FTX’s revenues to make the company more appealing to investors. ... Mr. Singh also pleaded guilty to...

The founder of FTX used executives as cut-outs for donations, prosecutors allege... That Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former chief executive of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX that recently filed for bankruptcy, was aggressively using campaign donations as part of a campaign to woo Washington toward his vision of cryptocurrency regulation was no secret — nor was it a secret that other FTX executives quickly became some of the country’s biggest political donors to both Republicans and Democrats, especially those who work on financial regulation. But a new federal criminal indictment alleges that things may have been even simpler than they...

Shortly before Christmas, FTX founder Samuel Bankman-Fried, indicted on federal charges of fraud and money laundering, was released on a $250 million bail bond that was secured by his parents’ Palo Alto-area home. The size of the bail bond — 25 times bigger than Bernie Madoff’s — garnered considerable attention. The prosecution termed it “the largest ever pretrial bond.” What hasn’t drawn notice is the fact that Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, who are professors at Stanford Law School, are not typical homeowners. Their property is a faculty home on the Stanford campus itself. Stanford owns the land, and Bankman...

Every day it seems that more and more information comes out showing our federal law enforcement agencies — the FBI and the Department of Justice — to be partisan enforcers working on taxpayer money for the exclusive benefit of the Democratic Party. In the most recent two weeks, it’s the Twitter Files, with the FBI caught red-handed pressuring the social media giant to suppress completely legal and First Amendment-protected (but disfavored) speech unfavorable to Joe Biden’s election (e.g., the Hunter Biden laptop story), or to the authoritarian dreams of our public health establishment (Covid-19). And this is only the latest...

In the typical federal case, a bail bondsman would charge between 10%-15% of the bail amount in cash to issue a surety bond or “bail bond.” In the case of Bankman-Fried’s astronomical bond, 15% of $250 million would be $37.5 million. But Bankman-Fried did not pay $37.5 million for his bond. No, Bankman-Fried actually paid no cash atIn this case, Bankman-Fried was not required to post a conventional bail bond. Instead, Bankman-Fried was simply released from custody on something called a personal recognizance bond. The personal recognizance bond contains Bankman-Fried’s solemn promise (and his parents’ promise) to pay the court...

The sad truth is that the ‘campaign contributions’ (bribe money) are likely far in excess of tens of millions… Regardless, prosecutors are claiming that FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried made millions in ‘illegal’ campaign contributions—this is aside from the money transparently given mostly to Democrats. SBF gave money to both sides of the political establishment; however, reports indicate that he was a Democrat mega-donor. His recent arrest has prompted many to wonder if the establishment is attempting to keep him from Congressional questioning via testimony he agreed to give.