As the trial start date for FTX co-founder Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried looms, new court documents reveal that SBF can pay expert witnesses upwards of $1,000 an hour if they testify on his behalf.
The SBF may call seven expert witnesses to testify in its fraud trial, currently scheduled for Oct. 2, 2023. Proposed expert witnesses include Lawrence Akka, Thomas Bishop, Brian Kim, Joseph Pimbley, Bradley Smith, Peter Vinella and Andrew Di Wu.
Some witnesses, such as former Federal Election Commission Chairman Bradley Smith, will TOLL SBF’s legal team was paid $1,200 an hour to testify on issues including U.S. campaign finance law and straw donors, according to an Aug. 28 court filing.
“I have no financial interest in the outcome of this case. My time and services are calculated by the hour at a rate of $1,200 per hour,” Smith said in the filing. The document adds:
“My compensation in this case is in no way accidental, nor is it based on the opinions presented here or the outcome of these legal proceedings.”
Other expert witnesses, including Aka and Pingboli, can TOLL They were paid £800 ($1,000) and $720 an hour, respectively, if they testified, according to to court documents. SBF’s other hourly rates for potential expert witnesses range from $400 to $650.
University of Notre Dame accounting professor Peter Easton, on the other hand, will be charged $1,175 an hour as a proposed witness for the prosecution, court data show. programme.
The aforementioned court filing is part of a motion by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to bar all seven expert witnesses from testifying for SBF in court.
The DOJ argued that Bankman-Fried’s proposed experts and their accompanying disclosures “suffered from a series of flaws” that failed to provide a basis for the opinion.
related: DOJ Calls SBF’s Fraud Charge Defense ‘Irrelevant,’ Requests More Information
“If defendants did disclose expert opinions, those opinions were unsuitable the subject of expert testimony, lacked sound methodology or a basis in fact and data, or were insignificant, unfairly biased, and would have made The jury is confused.”
The news comes amid a deadline for the SBF to request a postponement of the trial. If the request is filed and approved before September 1, the SBF trial will be moved to March 11, 2024.
Bankman-Fried faces 12 criminal charges spread over two trials scheduled to begin on October 2, 2023 and March 11, 2024. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.
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