Sam Bankman-Fried will not face second trial in wake of November conviction

In the latest twist in the saga of disgraced former billionaire cryptocurrency fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried, federal prosecutors announced that they will not pursue a second trial on additional charges in the wake of proceedings earlier this year that resulted in his conviction on multiple criminal counts, as CBS News reports.

Having already been found guilty on all seven counts leveled against him in his initial trial, Bankman-Fried is scheduled for sentencing in March and could face up to 115 years in prison.

Second trial scuttled

In a letter sent to U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, attorneys for the federal government declared that a second trial would result in the presentation of duplicate evidence to that already introduced.

Further, they claimed, a second proceeding would disregard the “strong public interest in a prompt resolution” of Bankman-Fried's fate, given that any delay in sentencing could halt payment of forfeiture and restitution amounts expected to be ordered.

However, the prosecutors noted, the judge would be able to take evidence slated for use in a second trial into consideration when it comes time to render a sentence in the first case.

Critics weigh in

Critics of the government's decision have pointed out that among the charges for which Bankman-Fried will not be tried is a count related to unlawful campaign contributions, which included massive sums given to Democratic candidates and issue campaigns in recent years, as the Post Millennial notes.

The outlet further explains that with that count not being brought to trial, there will likely be no revelation of “just how many politicians received his ill-gotten gains.”

If a trial had commenced, the outlet went on, “perhaps those elected leaders and politicians would have been pressured ot return the funds to those customers who were bilked out of their investments by FTX and Bankman-Fried.”

Weighing in on these developments, conservative commentator Charlie Kirk lamented the fact that key information on the liberal recipients of Bankman-Fried's dirty money will remain under wraps.

“The SBF case became too high-profile for the DOJ to completely ignore, but they made sure laundering of $100 million of customers' money to Schumer, Biden, and McConnell and other dark money groups would never blow back on the 'elite,'” Kirk wrote.

He went on, “Trump faces 700 years in federal prison, but America's uniparty cabal just gave themselves a get out of jail free card. You're witnessing DC corruption in realtime.”

Fellow commentator Collin Rugg concurred, observing, “Making bribes with stolen money is fine as long as that money is going to U.S. politicians,” and though the secrecy and corruption that will apparently prevail in this case is undeniably lamentable, at least Bankman-Fried will not see the outside of a prison cell any time soon.