- Bankman-Fried seeks frequent jail departures for onerous trial preparation, implicating FTX attorneys during a potential fraud trial.
- Detained Bankman-Fried faces restricted access, legal plea, and advice-of-counsel strategy controversy, raising attorney-client privilege concerns.
- Federal prosecutors press for the disclosure of counsel details in Bankman-Fried’s defense, with trial implications.
Bankrupt FTX’s founder, Sam Bakman-Fried’s legal representatives contended on Friday that unless he is granted the freedom to depart from jail on a frequency of five occasions each week, the preparation for his upcoming criminal fraud trial scheduled for October will become excessively onerous. During this trial, there is a possibility that he might implicate FTX’s attorneys.
Presently, Bankman-Fried is held in a detention facility situated in Brooklyn. He arrived in custody several weeks ago, having been handcuffed due to the revocation of his bail over concerns related to tampering with witnesses. This marked a significant contrast from his previous situation of being under house arrest at his parent’s residence in California. Federal prosecutor Danielle Sassoon asserted that no conditions, other than detention, could sufficiently address public safety concerns. She also noted that Bankman-Fried’s recent actions had crossed acceptable boundaries.
Bankman-Fried’s legal representatives argue that the limitations placed on his visitors and access to certain materials violate his Sixth Amendment rights. These rights entail his ability to examine the evidence being utilized in the case against him. Meanwhile, Bankman-Fried has entered a plea of not guilty to a multitude of criminal charges, encompassing allegations of fraud and money laundering.
Particularly, it is being argued that Bankman-Fried should be granted the ability to utilize more than four terabytes of data that have been collected during the trial’s discovery phase. As per his legal team, the suggested arrangement would enable him to share these materials through means such as email and Google Drive. Moreover, the restrictions imposed at the Brooklyn facility fail to provide Bankman-Fried with adequate chances to review the discovery materials. His legal representatives argue that the current twice-a-week schedule is impractical, pointing out that these limitations contradict the earlier assurances made by federal prosecutors that his access would be “very generous.”
“The plan is entirely inadequate given the extraordinarily voluminous discovery in this case. Internet-enabled discovery review is the only viable way.”
Sam Bankman-fRied’s attorney
Given Bankman-Fried’s present arrangement, his legal team has expressed that he has virtually no chance of reviewing the recently disclosed 750,000 Slack messages relevant to his case. Additionally, it has been noted that Bankman-Fried’s lawyers have experienced delays of two to three hours when attempting to meet with him at the facility. This waiting time has been deemed wasteful and counterproductive.
To address these concerns, Bankman-Fried’s legal team has put forth a request for their client to be granted consistent access to a designated room within the Manhattan courthouse, the site of his impending trial. This room would serve as a dedicated space for him to engage in the preparation of his legal defense. His lawyers emphasized the significance of this accommodation, particularly due to the approaching high-profile trial. Concurrently, federal prosecutors submitted their own filing seeking clarification.
Following Bankman-Fried’s legal team’s indication on Thursday that they intend to pursue an “advice-of-counsel” defense, they have subsequently declined to share any additional specifics, according to the prosecutor’s office.
By employing an advice-of-counsel defense, Bankman-Fried would essentially assert that he didn’t have the intention to violate the law, as he had received assurance from a lawyer that his actions as CEO of FTX were permissible, as reported by Bloomberg Law. However, this approach effectively waives the privilege of attorney-client confidentiality.
Additionally, federal prosecutors have highlighted that Bankman-Fried’s legal team has not revealed the identities of the lawyers he consulted for the defense strategy, nor have they specified the particular aspects of the case for which he purportedly sought legal advice.
Government attorneys have formally asked the court to instruct Bankman-Fried’s counsel to provide further details regarding the advice-of-counsel defense by the upcoming Wednesday. Alternatively, if Bankman-Fried’s attorneys choose not to cooperate, federal prosecutors have requested that this defense tactic be disallowed during the trial.
