SBF still faces charges over illegal campaign donations, DOJ says

Odaily Planet Daily News US prosecutors said in a letter on Tuesday that the Justice Department still plans to charge SBF with an "illegal campaign contribution" scheme when it goes to trial in October. Prosecutors had said two weeks ago that the charge could not be brought against SBF due to treaty obligations. Prosecutors will file a replacement indictment next week with seven charges against SBF ahead of a trial in October, the letter said. Each of those charges would come from the original indictment, with only one campaign contribution charge excluded by the U.S. extradition treaty with the Bahamas. The letter to Judge Lewis Kaplan said the Justice Department plans to include the campaign contribution charge against SBF in a wire fraud charge. "The superseding indictment will make clear that SBF remains charged with conducting an illegal campaign contribution scheme as part of the original alleged fraud and money laundering scheme," the Justice Department said, adding that the use of customer deposits for the campaign was part of the original indictment Charges of wire fraud filed in . “Defendants also concealed the source of their fraudulent income through political contributions as part of the originally alleged money laundering scheme,” the Justice Department said. As the administration will outline in its forthcoming motion, conduct related to defendants’ illegal campaign contributions will Admitted at trial as direct evidence of trial charges." (CoinDesk) According to previous news, SBF is currently scheduled to stand trial on October 2 on seven counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He will then stand trial next March on five more counts, including conspiracy to commit bank fraud, conspiracy to operate an unlicensed money transmitter and conspiracy to bribe foreign government officials.