U.S. prosecutors submitted a letter to a New York federal court on Friday saying they do not plan to pursue a second indictment against Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX. In November, Bankman-Fried was found guilty of seven counts of fraud and conspiracy related to FTX’s collapse.
Bankman-Fried was scheduled for a second trial in March, with prosecutors splitting five additional charges from the original proceedings. A federal judge gave prosecutors until February 1 to decide whether the trial will proceed.
Prosecutors said on Friday that most of the evidence against Bankman-Fried had been presented in the first trial and he will be sentenced in March 2024. He faces up to 110 years in prison.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in the letter: "Given the facts of the situation and the strong public interest in resolving this issue expeditiously, the government intends to impose a sentence on the counts for which the defendant was convicted at trial." The letter also said that sentencing "will likely include an order for forfeiture and restitution to the victims of defendant's crimes."
A spokesman for Bankman-Fried declined to comment.
Prosecutors wrote that Bankman-Fried had previously been extradited from the Bahamas, but the Bahamas has not agreed to stand trial on the remaining charges and "the government has no timetable for when the Bahamas will respond to its request."
The FTX incident is one of the most significant criminal cases in the economic field in recent times since the Madoff Ponzi scheme in 2009. Bankman-Fried's previous trial included 15 days of testimony and about four and a half hours of jury deliberations.
The former golden boy of the cryptocurrency world was found guilty of stealing billions of dollars from customer accounts of his once-proud cryptocurrency exchange, FTX. He was also found guilty of defrauding lenders of FTX's sister company hedge fund Alameda Research, which held FTX client funds in bank accounts.
In addition, Bankman-Fried was found guilty of defrauding FTX investors and money laundering.