Good day everyone,
I hope you are all well and having excellent day, welcome to CryptoGod-1’s blog on all things crypto. Today I will be looking at how the Department of Justice (DOJ) has requested for the court to rejects Sam Bankman-Fried's (SBF) planned defence to blame a law firm for the FTX fraud.
US Department of Justice
On Tuesday the 29th of August 2023 the U.S. Department of Justice made a filing to the court in which they requested the planned defence of SBF is rejected. The DOJ has argued that the defence is irrelevant and confusing, and it is deflecting from the heinous actions of FTX and Alameda Research which disgraced the crypto industry back in November 2022.
“The Court should preclude irrelevant, confusing, and prejudicial questioning, evidence, and arguments about the involvement of attorneys.”
Attorney Damian Williams argued that SBF deceived Silvergate Bank when he managed to secure a bank account for his company North Dimension. It has also been argued that the lawyers involvement at the time was only relevant if they were aware of SBF's intention to use the account for illicit purposes. Added to this, the prosecutor also made similar remarks regarding the use of auto-deleting Signal messages by FTX staff, while the drafting of loan agreement was alleged to have misused customer funds.
SBF's attorney Mark Cohen responded to the filing by noted that they have already made disclosures regarding their defence strategy. Cohen went on to add that he has concerns over his client's condition in jail (he is currently being held in MDC) and that its a violation of SBF's constitutional rights. SBF has access to the internet while in jail, but it is not sufficient according to Cohen. It has also hindered his ability to adequately prepare for trial.
SBF is facing multiple fraud charges following the collapse of his platform back in November 2022 and will go on trial in October 2023, having previously been on $250 million bail bond. He was returned to jail back in August 2023 when it was decided his attempts to contact a witness, while leaking another's diary to the media, had broke the terms of his bail.
His lawyers requested a temporary release from jail last week in order for SBF to work on his defence at the federal courthouse in Manhattan. This was outlined in a letter sent to the presiding judge on the matter, Judge Lewis Kaplan, noting that SBF was not in a position to review the extensive documents related to his case while he was in MDC.
Prosecutors raised their concerns about SBF's compliance with requirements relating to his planned defence in response to the appeal. The noted that SBF has yet to provide all the necessary information regarding the advice he relied on for his actions. There have also been new allegations of embezzlement of customer funds from the DOJ towards SBF, as per an indictment filed earlier this month. It include stolen funds of over $100 million used in political campaign contributions ahead of the 2022 US midterm elections.
The DOJ has also requested for the proposed expert witnesses of SBF to be excluded for the trail in October. This happened late on Monday the 28th of August 2023 with the filing stating:
“The defense’s proposed experts and accompanying disclosures suffer from an array of deficiencies that warrant preclusion of all seven witnesses.”
They claim that the seven experts do not adhere to minimum criminal proceedings laws, and opinions lack a reliable methodology. The DOJ also added that their testimonies could be unfairly prejudicial and confusing to the jury.
Have a great day.
Peace. CryptoGod-1.
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