A U.S. judge on Tuesday denied Democratic megadonor Sam Bankman-Fried’s bid to have criminal charges against him thrown out, paving the way for the founder of now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX to face trial starting Oct. 2.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan say Bankman-Fried, 31, stole billions of dollars in FTX customer funds to plug losses at his hedge fund, Alameda Research, misled investors and lenders, and illegally made contributions to U.S. political campaigns in the names of his colleagues.
Bankman-Fried is accused of making more than 300 illegal political donations, using straw donors to direct corporate funds to campaign committees while bypassing contribution limits. More than 95 percent of Bankman-Fried’s contributions went to Democrats and Democratic committees, the Washington Free Beacon reported. The crypto CEO and his cofounders at FTX gave more than $300,000 to members of the House committee that investigated the company’s collapse.
The onetime billionaire has pleaded not guilty. He has acknowledged inadequate risk management at FTX, but denies stealing funds.
In May, Bankman-Fried asked U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan to dismiss at least 11 of the 13 fraud and conspiracy charges he faced.
He argued that some were based on a legal theory of fraud that has been invalidated by the U.S. Supreme Court, and that some were improperly brought without consent from the Bahamas, where he was arrested in December and extradited to the United States.
“The arguments are either moot or without merit,” Kaplan wrote in a ruling on Thursday.
A spokesman for Bankman-Fried did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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