Federal Prodropping a charge that he violated campaign finance rules
Biden DOJ Drops Campaign Finance Charges Against Sam Bankman-Fried
Information Liberation reports:
Federal prosecutors pursuing the criminal case against the cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried said on Wednesday that they were dropping a charge that he violated campaign finance rules.
Mr. Bankman-Fried was charged with fraud and campaign finance violations in December after the sudden collapse of his company, the cryptocurrency exchange FTX. He was quickly extradited to the United States from the Bahamas, where FTX was based.
But in a court filing on Wednesday night, the prosecutors said the Bahamas had informed them that the nation’s government had not intended to extradite Mr. Bankman-Fried on the campaign finance charge.
“In keeping with its treaty obligations to the Bahamas, the government does not intend to proceed to trial on the campaign contributions count,” the prosecutors’ filing said.
The authorities have said Mr. Bankman-Fried and others at FTX used customer deposits to make $90 million in campaign contributions to some 300 political candidates or political action committees. Months ago, prosecutors and bankruptcy lawyers for FTX began asking recipients of those donations to return them.
A spokesman for Mr. Bankman-Fried declined to comment.
