STORY: Sam Bankman-Fried left a Manhattan court empty-handed on Thursday, after a judge appeared skeptical of the former billionaire's push to dismiss most of the criminal charges against him in the government's case accusing the 31-year-old of defrauding customers of FTX, the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange he once ran.

Lawyers for Bankman-Fried - or SBF, as he is sometimes called - sought to dismiss at least 11 of the 13 charges their client faces.

In March, the one-time crypto billionaire pleaded not guilty to fraud, money laundering, campaign finance and conspiracy charges following his extradition from the Bahamas, where FTX had been based before its collapse last year.

That international aspect has attorneys on both sides arguing about what prosecutors can technically charge in an American court:

Bankman-Fried's lawyers had asked the judge to dismiss six charges because the Bahamas did not consent to them.

Without that consent, prosecutors offered to drop five charges if the court would set a second trial for them early next year.

But the judge on Thursday declined to rule on that request, saying it was uncertain when the Caribbean country might grant consent to those charges, which include bank fraud and bribing Chinese officials.

The original eight-count indictment accused SBF of stealing billions of dollars from FTX customers to plug losses at his crypto-focused personal hedge fund, and of lying to investors and lenders.

The trial is scheduled for October 2.