Amid reports that the White House will not consider a presidential pardon, the convicted former FTX CEO continues his efforts in court. Lawyers representing the US government in the case against Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried have two weeks to respond to the former FTX CEO’s motion for a new criminal trial. In a Wednesday filing in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, Judge Lewis Kaplan said that the US government shall respond by March 11 to SBF’s motion for a new trial. The former FTX CEO, who was convicted of seven felony counts in 2023 and later sentenced to 25 years in prison, requested a new trial earlier this month, claiming that new witness testimony could help bolster his case. Bankman-Fried, once revered by many as one of the most prominent faces representing the crypto and blockchain industry, was at the center of the controversy around the collapse of FTX. He stepped down as CEO in November 2022, later facing criminal charges in the US for the misuse of user funds. Read more
The dismissal came days before Tornado Cash developer Roman Storm was scheduled to face charges in US federal court. The US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has dismissed an appeal filed by crypto advocacy organization Coin Center against the US Treasury Department over its Office of Foreign Assets Control’s 2022 sanctions against the Tornado Cash mixing service. In a Thursday filing, the appellate court granted a motion to vacate a lower court ruling and remand with instructions to dismiss as part of a joint filing with Coin Center and the US Treasury. The dismissal, according to the court, would essentially conclude Coin Center’s legal challenge against the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). In 2022, OFAC added multiple wallet addresses connected to Tornado Cash to its list of sanctioned entities. Coin Center filed a lawsuit alleging that the Treasury Department “exceeded [its] statutory authority” in the sanctions, though there were other lawsuits filed by interested parties, incl...