Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyers ask for his provisional release to prepare his defense

The lawyers of Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the platform cryptocurrencies FTXthey asked the judge this Wednesday to grant him provisional release to be able to prepare his defense in the fraud trial against him that will begin on October 2 in NY.

In a letter to Judge Lewis Kaplan, who is handling the case, attorney Mark Cohen stated that his team “is unable to prepare adequately” to Bankman-Fried because “He is imprisoned without internet access”there is “millions of pages” of evidence to review and, in short, is undermining your “right to defense”.

“We implore the court to allow Mr. Bankman-Fried access to his lawyers and materials, which can be accomplished by allowing him release into custody of his parents subject to strict limitations. That alone will be enough.” the lawyers sentenced in the letter.

The 31-year-old defendant, nicknamed SBF by his initials and who was a young promise in the cryptocurrency sector, is accused by the US Justice of seven crimes of fraud and money laundering for allegedly diverting billions of dollars of clients of the FTX platform for other purposes.

After paying one of the highest bails in history, of 250 million dollars, he was detained at his parents’ house in California until, in early August, the judge sent him to prison for alleged witness tampering, including his ex-partner and ex-partner Caroline Ellison, who has agreed to cooperate with the authorities and will allegedly testify against him.

The lawyers pointed out that the Prosecutor’s Office did not begin to share the materials that it will present in the case until last February and that a month after the trial they continue to supply “a prohibitive amount” of documents, including 4 million pages from SBF’s Google account at Alameda Research, an FTX partner company.

In this sense, the lawyers have asked the judge not to admit to trial the documents presented by the Prosecutor’s Office as of July 1.

The last few days have been marked by the exchange of messages between the prosecution and the defense regarding the contents of the trial, including the list of evidence and witnesses that each party will present and that will be determined as of the first week of September. .

At the moment, the SBF defense has proposed a list with six potential witnesses; experts in data analytics, cryptocurrencies and law, among other fields, who would charge between US$400 and US$1,200 per hour, but their acceptance as witnesses will not be known until September 18.

Source: EFE