NEW YORK—A U.S. judge on Thursday granted a request from prosecutors to try some of their charges against Sam Bankman-Fried in a second trial next year separate from his scheduled Oct. 2 trial over the collapse of now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
Bankman-Fried, 31, will be tried on March 11, 2024, on five counts, including bank fraud and bribing Chinese officials, that federal prosecutors in Manhattan brought after he was extradited from the Bahamas in December, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan said in a written order. FTX was based in the Caribbean nation.
The onetime billionaire has pleaded not guilty to 13 fraud and conspiracy charges. An initial eight-count indictment filed in December accused him of stealing billions of dollars from FTX customers to plug losses at his Alameda Research hedge fund, lying to investors and lenders, and violating U.S. campaign finance laws….