NEW YORK—The decision by U.S. prosecutors on Wednesday to drop a campaign finance charge against Sam Bankman-Fried may keep his trial focused on what the government considers his main crime: stealing billions of dollars from cryptocurrency customers at his now-bankrupt FTX exchange.
Mr. Bankman-Fried, 31, is fighting to stay out of jail ahead of his Oct. 2 trial on fraud charges, after prosecutors in Manhattan accused him of tampering with witnesses by sharing personal writings of his former romantic partner Caroline Ellison with a New York Times reporter.
