UPDATE: Sam Bankman-Fried Gets Bad News—Where Does He Go From Here?
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September 22, 2023 11:15 am
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Sam Bankman-Fried continues to face legal hurdles ahead of his trial set to begin on October 3.
The former CEO of the FTX exchange sought to have a panel of 7 expert witnesses testify as part of his defense, but a federal judge recently denied that motion.
Lawyers for the disgraced CEO also moved to exclude one government witness from the trial—this also failed to materialize, and the witness will testify on behalf of the prosecution.
Additionally, Bankman-Fried lost his bid to secure pretrial release and will remain in jail throughout the trial.
Coin Telegraph reports: “A federal judge has sided with the Department of Justice over SBF’s legal team and will bar certain witnesses from testifying for the former CEO of FTX.”
A federal judge has sided with the Department of Justice over SBF's legal team and will bar certain witnesses from testifying for the former CEO of FTX. https://t.co/MWudn8EQwG
— Cointelegraph (@Cointelegraph) September 21, 2023
Sources confirmed that Sam Bankman-Fried will remain in jail throughout the course of the trial.
Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (aka ‘SBF’, ex-crypto mogul, addict and allaround loser) was initially granted bail after being arraigned in early spring for a litany of federal charges. But then SBF had his bail revoked last month when he was caught tampering with witnesses.… pic.twitter.com/i4YroVLQ5B
— Matt Paulus 🇺🇸 (@mdpaulus) September 22, 2023
Crypto Slate provided a list of the excluded witnesses:
Bankman-Fried’s list of now-excluded witnesses featured experts in multiple areas, including consultant Thomas Bishop, data analyst Brian Kim, law professor Bradley Smith, British barrister Lawrence Akka, consultant Joseph Pimbley, financial consultant Peter Vinella, and assistant business professor Andrew Di Wu.
Luc Cohen presented this concerning passage of legal allegations against the former FTX CEO alleging that he distributed amphetamines to his employees.
Prosecutors say witnesses have told them that SBF's psychiatrist "liberally" dispensed Adderall to FTX employees. pic.twitter.com/9IP3lCzX5r
— Luc Cohen (@cohenluc) September 15, 2023
Previously, it was widely reported that SBF wanted to pay each witness up to $1,200 per hour, despite claiming he had $100,000 or less in his possession. Where is the extra money coming from?
#FTX founder @SBF_FTX Sam Bankman Fried wants to pay 7 expert witnesses up to $1,200 an hour to testify on his behalf.
Before he had said he only had $100k in his bank account#cryptonewshttps://t.co/kjudJ5DZJn— MrStonks (@stonksxnews) August 30, 2023
CoinDesk reports:
In August, the FTX founder’s release on bond was revoked and he was locked up because a judge ruled he’d probably tried to tamper with witnesses.
Earlier this month, his request to overturn that decision was denied. On Thursday, an appeals court refused to overrule that.
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