Prosecutors accused SBF of stealing billions of dollars in FTX customer funds to compensate for losses at his Alameda Research hedge fund

A federal judge on Tuesday declined Sam Bankman-Fried’s attempt to get rid of most of the U.S. government’s criminal case accusing the FTX cryptocurrency exchange founder of setting up a multibillion-dollar scam.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan clears the way for an October 2 trial of SBF, a 31-year-old former billionaire.

Prosecutors accused SBF of stealing billions of dollars in FTX customer funds to compensate for losses at his Alameda Research hedge fund.

They also accused SBF of misleading investors and lenders, and contributing unlawfully to U.S. political campaigns in the names of colleagues.

SBF has pleaded not guilty and declined stealing funds, while admitting that FTX had insufficient risk management.

SBF in May asked Kaplan to drop at least 11 of the 13 fraud and conspiracy charges he faced.

He said some charges were based on a fraud theory – where a defendant could be sentenced for denying someone of economically valuable information and not merely tangible property – the U.S. Supreme Court in May adjudged invalid.

But the judge consented with prosecutors that the theory, called right to control, did not apply to SBF.

The defendant’s contention that the charge does not claim any ‘economic loss’ to FTX customers seems to be factually inaccurate, and the claimed misappropriated funds clearly comprised property, Kaplan stated.

SBF also contended that some charges were inappropriately brought without approval from the Bahamas, where he was arrested in December and deported to the US.

A repatriation treaty between the US and the Bahamas, where FTX was based, says a country must agree before defendants can be tried on charges brought after their deportation.