Attorneys representing FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried have flagged it might be essential to delay the felony trial for the previous crypto alternate govt — to present him extra time to arrange his protection.
In a Mar. 8 letter to United States District Decide Lewis Kaplan, Bankman-Fried’s attorneys mentioned they weren’t formally requesting a date change simply but, however it might be wanted as they’re nonetheless awaiting a “substantial portion” of proof to be turned over to them and extra expenses had been laid towards the FTX founder in late February.
The felony trial is scheduled to start on Oct. 2 and can concentrate on the fraud expenses introduced by the Division of Justice (DOJ).
In keeping with the letter, DOJ prosecutors are holding proof from units belonging to Caroline Ellison, the previous CEO of FTX’s sister buying and selling agency Alameda Analysis and Zixiao “Gary” Wang, an FTX co-founder.
Each Ellison and Wang have pleaded responsible to fraud expenses and are cooperating with the DOJ.
Bankman-Fried’s attorneys mentioned they’re additionally ready for contents from “computer systems belonging to 2 different former FTX/Alameda staff.” They anticipate the manufacturing of the proof from the units “will probably be voluminous and critically essential to the protection.”
The letter additionally famous the outdated indictment towards Bankman-Fried unsealed on Feb. 22 that bumped the variety of expenses from eight to 12, with new expenses regarding conspiracy and fraud.
Bankman-Fried pleaded not responsible to the unique eight expenses introduced towards him in December 2022.
Certainly one of Bankman-Fried’s attorneys, Christian Everdell, wrote within the letter:
“Relying on the quantity of the extra discovery and the timing of the productions, it might be essential to request an adjournment of the trial, at the moment scheduled to start on October 2, 2023.”
“Whereas we don’t make such an software right now, we wished to notice this situation for the Court docket now,” Everdell added.
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Bankman-Fried is at the moment launched on a $250 million bond. He has been below home arrest in Palo Alto, California at his dad or mum’s home and his on-line actions are restricted.
The schedule for the trial and bail situations will probably be mentioned at a listening to on Friday, Mar. 10.
The FTX founder alsfaces separate fraud-related civil lawsuits from the Commodities Futures Buying and selling Fee (CFTC) and the Securities Trade Fee (SEC) — each have been delayed till after Bankman-Fried’s felony trial.
