Last month, US federal prosecutors in Manhattan said they would drop five charges of foreign bribery, bank fraud and conspiracy against the one-time billionaire if the Caribbean nation did not agree to them. Those charges were not in Bankman-Fried’s initial eight-count indictment last December, which focused on the collapse of FTX the previous month, but they were added after his extradition. FTX was based in the Bahamas.
In papers filed late Monday in Manhattan federal court, Bankman-Fried’s lawyers said a sixth charge alleging US campaign finance violations should also be dismissed because the Bahamas did not consent to it. His lawyers want the six charges dismissed, or tried separately from charges of stealing from customers and lying to investors and lenders. “To proceed otherwise would cause significant prejudice to Mr. Bankman-Fried and should not be permitted,” the lawyers wrote.