Lawyers representing former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, or SBF, have claimed the “extraordinary accommodations” provided by authorities have been inadequate so as for him to put together for his prison trial in October.
In an Aug. 25 submitting within the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, SBF’s authorized crew stated the plan proposed by prosecutors to permit the previous FTX CEO entry to discovery supplies earlier than trial was insufficient. Lawyers stated the U.S. Justice Department produced roughly 4 million pages of discovery supplies on Aug. 24, and there have been “millions of pages of documents and terabytes of data” left for SBF to evaluation for his prison trial.
“We do not believe that anything short of temporary release will properly address these problems and safeguard Mr. Bankman-Fried’s right to participate in his own defense,” stated the submitting. “Before his bail was revoked, Mr. Bankman-Fried was spending 80-100 hours a week reviewing the voluminous discovery and creating detailed analyses that he could update constantly and share with his attorneys.”
Bankman-Fried had been free on a $250 million bond for roughly eight months following his extradition from the Bahamas and arraignment within the U.S. in December 2022. However, following allegations of witness intimidation of former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison, a federal decide revoked his bail. Since Aug. 11, roughly two months earlier than the beginning of his first prison trial, SBF has been remanded to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
Since his bail was revoked, SBF’s authorized crew has been pushing for fewer restrictions, permitting him time outdoors jail so as to put together for trial. A decide dominated on Aug. 21 that SBF be allowed roughly seven hours within the New York courthouse cell block legal professional room on Aug. 22, and later issued an order giving him access to the same space with one laptop computer and wifi-enabled system on a seemingly limitless foundation offered his lawyers gave 48 hours discover.
“Mr. Bankman-Fried needs constant access to an internet-enabled computer that allows him to review documents from discovery, look up relevant context for the evidence online, draft and edit work product analyzing the documents and data, and share these documents and analyses with his attorneys,” claimed his authorized crew. “The Government’s current plan […] comes nowhere close to this.”
Related: Superseding indictment against Sam Bankman-Fried includes using $100M for campaign contributions
SBF’s first of two trials is scheduled to start on Oct. 3, through which he’ll face seven fees associated to fraudulent actions involving consumer funds at FTX and Alameda Research. The second trial, scheduled for March 2024, will embrace 5 different prison fees.
According to court docket filings, Bankman-Fried’s authorized crew could pursue a defense claiming the previous CEO acted “in good faith” on the recommendation of lawyers from Fenwick & West and FTX’s in-house counsel. These allegedly unlawful actions included SBF directing that sure communications between FTX and Alameda workers be robotically deleted.
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