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- 1 In a letter to Judge Kaplan, SBF’s attorney argues that delay in producing key evidence by the prosecutors could affect the FTX case.
- 2 The bankrupt crypto exchange seeked permission to sell previously held AI stocks.
The case of FTX-saga is underway, and SBF claimed that prosecutors delayed producing key evidence. Also, they seek to sell Millions worth of AI stocks. The infamous case of once the world’s third largest and now bankrupt crypto exchange is underway, and former crypto white knight and former CEO of FTX, Sam Bankman Fried will face trial in October 2023.
FTX Case Might Suffer Due to Delay in Evidence Submission
SBF’s lawyer submitted a letter to Judge Lewis Kaplan, arguing that the government failed to produce critical contents from the five electronic devices. The submission was to be completed by March 2023.
The devices included a laptop and an iPhone belonging to SBF’s alleged girlfriend and ex-CEO of Alameda Research, Caroline Ellison, and a laptop of the crypto exchange’s co-founder Gary Wang. All the devices reportedly contain key evidence which would have benefited the case immensely.
“As the trial date is now less than four months away, the defense is concerned that the late production of such voluminous and important discovery will impact the preparation of the defense.” – Per the letter from SBF’s attorneys.
Sam Bankman-Fried is supposed to face trial on October 2, 2023, regarding a battery of charges to which he had pleaded not guilty to initial eight counts. Further charges were added afterward, including bribing Chinese officials and funding political campaigns during U.S. mid-term election. However, lawyers hope these charges can be dropped if the Bahamas objects.
Lawerys argued that as the devices would contain massive amounts of information, studying them to prepare a defense in less than four months might not be possible. The first deadline to produce the findings was March 30, which was extended to April’s first week. Still, they failed to produce anything.
The letter also mentioned the failure to produce information regarding crypto exchange debtors. The delay would inadvertently affect the ability of the defense to prepare for a fair trial. Also, the five instances of evidence production have around 3.6 Million documents and over 10 Million pages combined. Crafting a good defense on such information can be tedious and might take time to complete. Also, SBF wants the case to stay the same.
Per FTX’s balance sheets, at the time of filing of Chapter 11 Bankruptcy on November 11, 2022, the company held around $500 Million worth of stocks in Anthropic. The recent boom in AI stocks could fetch decent value and help the exchange.
Moreover, court filings on May 8, 2023, argued that the count of bribing Chinese Officials and financing political campaigns should be dropped. It states that the counts were not mentioned in the extradition treaty and hence shall be settled as none were mentioned.
Any nation is sometimes entitled to press charges against the convict post extradition, provided it does not affect the case. Authorities argue that the charges were mentioned in the diplomatic note sent during extradition. Moreover, the chances that the Bahamas would challenge the charges are slim.
Nancy J. Allen is a crypto enthusiast, with a major in macroeconomics and minor in business statistics. She believes that cryptocurrencies inspire people to be their own banks, and step aside from traditional monetary exchange systems. She is also intrigued by blockchain technology and its functioning. She frequently researches, and posts content on the top altcoins, their theoretical working principles and technical price predictions.
