Judge splits charges against FTX founder Bankman-Fried into two trials

A federal judge on Thursday scheduled two separate trials for FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried to allow a case against him to proceed amid an ongoing legal dispute over the prosecutors' pursuing new charges against him after the Bahamas agreed to his extradition.

Judge Lewis A. Kaplan allowed the case to proceed to trial in October, when prosecutors will pursue eight of the 13 charges levied against the former cryptocurrency mogul, the New York Times reported. The prosecution agreed to withdraw the remaining five charges temporarily, but with the caveat that Kaplan schedule a trial for next year to address them. Kaplan set the date at March 11.

The ex-mogul has pleaded not guilty and posted $250 million in bond. He is currently under house arrest at his parents' home in Palo Alto, Calif.

Bankman-Fried agreed to extradition from the Bahamas to the United States in December of last year. After his arrival in the country, federal authorities pursued additional charges. Last week, he secured a court ruling in the Bahamas allowing him to argue there that Nassau should not consent to the U.S. levying the additional counts.

Formerly one of the world's leading cryptocurrency firms, FTX suffered the equivalent of a bank run last November when investors rapidly lost faith in the firm and attempted to withdraw their stakes.

Bankman-Fried has denied wrongdoing, but admitted the company lacked adequate risk assessment tools to avert such a collapse. His successor as CEO, John J. Ray III, testified to Congress that completely lacked internal controls and kept no records of its dealings.

"It's one of the worst from a documentation standpoint. Even in the most failed companies you have a fair roadmap of what happened. We're dealing with literally, sort of a paperless bankruptcy, in terms of how they created the company," he told Congress in December.

FTX cofounder Gary Wang and former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison have both pleaded guilty to criminal charges in connection with the firm's collapse and are reportedly cooperating with prosecutors.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.