Testimony from Sam Bankman-Fried’s trusted inner circle will be used to convict him, prosecutors say
NEW YORK –
Testimony from FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s “trusted inner circle” of former executives at his collapsed cryptocurrency empire will probably be used to show at an October trial that he misappropriated billions of {dollars} from his traders to gasoline his companies, make unlawful marketing campaign contributions and enrich himself, prosecutors stated Monday.
Prosecutors made the assertions in papers filed in Manhattan Federal Court, the place Bankman-Fried is charged with defrauding traders in his companies and illegally diverted tens of millions of {dollars}’ price of cryptocurrency from prospects utilizing his FTX trade. He has pleaded not responsible.
The court docket submitting, through which prosecutors describe proof they plan to current to jurors, got here three days after Bankman-Fried was despatched to a federal jail in Brooklyn to await trial by Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who stated there was possible trigger to consider he had tried to tamper with witness testimony at the very least twice since his December arrest.
It additionally got here on the identical day that prosecutors filed a streamlined indictment that comprises the seven prices Bankman-Fried faces on the Oct. 2 trial — however there is not any longer a marketing campaign finance cost for now, although it might go to trial later if they’re discovered to evolve with the phrases of an extradition treaty with the Bahamas.
Still, prosecutors stated within the newest indictment that Bankman-Fried misappropriated buyer cash to assist fund over US$100 million in political contributions prematurely of the 2022 election. The indictment stated he sought to “maximize FTX’s political influence” and use “these connections with politicians and government officials to falsely burnish the public image of FTX as a legitimate exchange.”
Late Monday, Bankman-Fried’s attorneys filed their very own court docket papers associated to trial proof. In them, they requested that the trial choose exclude proof concerning the FTX chapter, the solvency of FTC and its affiliated buying and selling platform, Alameda Research, and their capability to pay prospects again.
They additionally requested that the choose ban prosecutors from telling jurors that Bankman-Fried resigned from FTX. They stated they might oppose the prosecution’s plans to introduce proof associated to severed or withdrawn counts, such because the marketing campaign finance cost.
Before Friday, Bankman Fried, 31, had been residing together with his dad and mom in Palo Alto, Calif., after signing a US$250 million private recognizance bond following his extradition from the Bahamas final December.
Prosecutors just lately sought his detention, saying he had tried to intimidate his former girlfriend, Caroline Ellison — the one-time CEO of Alameda Research — by releasing a few of her writing to a journalist.
On Monday, the federal government stated they might depend on testimony from Ellison, FTX co-founder Gary Wang and former FTX engineering chief Nishad Singh to indicate jurors “the unlawful conduct directed and undertaken by the defendant.”
All three have pleaded responsible to legal prices in co-operation agreements with the federal government that might earn them leniency at sentencing.
Prosecutors stated they “formed the defendant’s trusted inner circle during the course of the conspiracy” and their testimony will probably be supplemented by a number of former staff of Alameda and FTX together with a number of victims, together with prospects, lenders and traders.
Other proof will consist of monetary information, Google paperwork and spreadsheets, and personal communications, they added.
A spokesperson for Bankman-Fried declined touch upon Monday.
Meanwhile, the choose on Monday granted a request by defence attorneys that their consumer be equipped his day by day prescribed drugs for despair and a focus deficit/hyperactivity dysfunction.
