New York University School of Law: Former Prosecutors React to Superseding Indictment in Sam Bankman-Fried Case

O’Melveny partners Rebecca Mermelstein and Mark Racanelli, who are both former prosecutors at the SDNY, co-authored a brief article offering their reactions to the collapse of FTX and the indictment of Sam Bankman-Fried. Titled “FCPA Charge Gives Prosecutors a Potential Alternate Path to Conviction,” Mermelstein and Racanelli addressed why prosecutors brought bribery charges against Bankman-Fried under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). “One challenge in proving the core FTX charges to a jury is that the facts are complicated. A jury will have to learn how crypto-currency works; how FTX’s algorithms were structured; and how financial arrangements between FTX and Alameda were structured,” the authors wrote. “The new charges offer an appealing simplicity: Bankman-Fried allegedly paid a bribe. That offers prosecutors at least one count where they may feel more certain of conviction, because the underlying facts and the issues the jury will need to grapple with are likely more straightforward.”

Read the full article here.