US District Judge, Kevin Castel, has paused two civil lawsuits from the SEC and the CFTC against Sam Bankman-Fried as the court wants to deal with the Department of Justice's criminal case first, Reuters reports.
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Prosecutors agreed with the judge, saying the cases "substantially overlapped" and the final outcome of the criminal case might impact issues brought up in the civil cases. The government also noted that Bankman-Fried's lawyers could adapt his criminal defense based on the information from the civil cases.
In December last year, the CFTC charged Sam Bankman-Fried, the now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX and hedge fund Alameda Research with fraud and material misrepresentations in connection with the sale of digital commodities in interstate commerce.
In parallel, the SEC also brought charges against Bankman-Fried, saying he had orchestrated a scheme to defraud equity investors in the exchange while raising more than $1.8 billion.
FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US in early November after it had faced a liquidity crisis.
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