The trial of disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is looming, with proceedings set to begin in early October. As his defense attorneys and prosecutors wrangled over everything from Bankman-Fried’s Internet access evidence, the latest front emerged in a series of court filings Monday night: expert witnesses for the defense.
Bankman-Fried is seeking a series of eight experts to testify on his behalf because of the complexity of the case, which includes allegations of everything from international corporate governance malpractice to campaign finance donations. They range from UK lawyers specializing in commercial law to directors of e-discovery consultancy firms.
Although the former billionaire previously said he had only $100,000 in his bank account, expert witnesses could have price tags in the tens of thousands of dollars, based on their own statements: Experts charged between $400 and $1,200 an hour. cost. The case is being pursued even though they say they have no financial interest in the outcome of the case.
In another lawsuit, FTX’s bankruptcy estate claim Bankman-Fried is using FTX client funds, including a $10 million gift to his father, to pay for his criminal defense.
Justice Department prosecutors are seeking to block the testimony of expert witnesses. In another document, prosecutors said the court should “exercise gatekeeping authority” by barring them from trial, arguing that they would be delivering legal conclusions that “violated the authority of the court and jury” and had “no other purpose” for the trial. Unacceptable hearsay testimony provides an expert sheen. ”
In the case of British barristers, prosecutors argued that expert Lawrence Akar’s interpretation was based on specific English case law, which was not reliable for juries.in page 45 archivethey criticized every witness proposed by Bankman-Fried.
With more than a month to go before the trial, the main focus of the debate is the content of the arguments of both sides.Both parties have filed motions in critical condition, or pretrial arguments about what types of evidence should be allowed. The defense has long complained that prosecutors are slowly sharing the millions of pages of documents they plan to include. In a letter filed Monday, Bankman-Fried’s attorney, Christian Everdell, said: debate The government notified the defense on 25 August that 3.7 million pages of evidence would be presented, in addition to the 4 million pages received the previous day. The defense sought to exclude any evidence from these works.
Things were complicated by a judge’s decision in mid-August to revoke Bankman-Fried’s bail. Because the defendant is now in New York’s Metropolitan Detention Center instead of living with his parents in Palo Alto, his attorneys argued that he could not adequately prepare for trial. In the letter filed Monday, Everdel wrote that Bankman-Fried was unable to review the detention center’s discovery material and had not yet received the hard drive of the material sent by his attorney a week ago.they are promote Applying for “temporary release” ahead of trial so Bankman-Fried can meet with his legal team five days a week.
A videoconference to discuss those issues is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
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