FTX’s-Sam Bankman-Fried Puts Trial Defense Together With 7 Expert Witnesses
01 September 2023 - 4:00PM
NEWSBTC
Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the founder of the defunct FTX exchange,
is set to face trial in October, barring any postponement. Amid the
fracas, the former exchange CEO has maintained that he isn’t guilty
of all these charges leveled against him and will be reportedly
bringing expert witnesses to prove his innocence. Sam Bankman-Fried
Defense To Call Seven Expert Witnesses According to a
Bloomberg report, Sam Bankman-Fried is employing the services of
seven different expert witnesses to help bolster his case. These
expert witnesses may form part of SBF’s defense, and if so, they
will be allegedly paid $1,200 an hour to testify in favor of FTX’s
former CEO. This means that SBF’s defense could be spending
up to $8,400 an hour for these expert witnesses, a staggering
figure given that high-profile trials like these can drag out for a
long time. Related Reading: Bitcoin Price Crashes Below $26,000 As
SEC Pushes Back On 7 Spot ETF Filings This list of expert witnesses
released so far includes Lawrence Akka, Thomas Bishop, Brian Kim,
Joseph Pimbley, Bradley Smith, Peter Vinella, and Andrew Di Wu.
Expert witnesses are persons with specialized knowledge in a
particular field. They are usually called upon in court proceedings
to break down complex or technical issues that the Judge and the
jury may not be conversant with. According to the defendant’s
notice, SBF’s expert witnesses will give evidence of various
issues, including campaign finance laws, the finances of FTX and
its sister company, Alameda Research, and the crypto exchange’s
software infrastructure. However, it is surprising that SBF
is calling an expert witness to give background information on the
US campaign finance laws, considering that the prosecution had
dropped the charge of him violating campaign finance rules.
The charge was dropped because it didn’t form part of the US
government’s extradition agreement with the Bahamas government, and
thus had no legs to stand on. But it seems defending himself
against such allegations is important to the FTX founder given he
is preparing a defense for it. FTT continues to decline as
trial draws closer | Source: FTTUSD on Tradingview.com DOJ Objects
To SBF’s Expert Witnesses In reply to SBF’s notice of his expert
witnesses, the government has filed a motion to exclude the
testimony of these witnesses. The prosecutors argue that these
experts and their accompanying disclosures suffer from an “array of
deficiencies” that necessitate their exclusion. For one,
their opinions have no basis as required by the Federal Rule of
Criminal Procedure. According to the prosecutors, their opinions,
among other things, are “irrelevant, unfairly prejudicial, and
confusing to the jury.” They further argue that these experts will
offer legal conclusions that “invade” the power of the court and
the jury, so the court should exercise its “gatekeeping authority”
and preclude their testimonies.” The Prosecutor’s motion contains
extensive arguments on why each of these expert witnesses’ opinions
should be excluded. They stated that Professor Smith’s testimony is
“irrelevant, confusing, and a waste of time” since SBF’s trial
doesn’t include a charge stemming from the defendant’s “illegal
campaign finance scheme.” Related Reading: Dogecoin And Bitcoin
Become Latest Additions To Robinhood Wallet Meanwhile, they argue
that Mr. Vinella’s testimony should be excluded on the grounds of
qualifications, relevancy, and admissibility. If rejected, they
have the court to grant them a Daubert hearing to evaluate his
“qualifications, methodology, and the relevance and reliability of
his proposed testimony. Mr. Vinella seems to be SBF’s primary
expert witness as he is set to opine on various topics, including
FTX’s operations and how the company took “commercially reasonable
steps” to protect customers’ funds despite the lack of regulatory
clarity in the US. SBF currently faces seven counts of
financial fraud, including wire fraud on FTX and Alameda customers,
securities fraud, and money laundering. Featured image from Town
& Country Magazine, chart from Tradingview.com
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