SBF’s lawyers signal need to push back October criminal trial

Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyers said they’re still waiting on evidence from federal prosecutors and may need more time to prepare a defense.

Lawyers representing FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried have flagged that it may be necessary to delay the criminal trial for the former crypto exchange executive to give him more time to prepare his defense.

In a March 8 letter to United States District Judge Lewis Kaplan, Bankman-Fried’s lawyers said they weren’t formally requesting a date change just yet, but it may be needed, as they’re still awaiting a “substantial portion” of evidence to be turned over to them and more charges had been laid against the FTX founder in late February.

The criminal trial is scheduled to begin on Oct. 2 and will focus on the fraud charges brought by the Department of Justice.

According to the letter, DOJ prosecutors are holding evidence from devices belonging to Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of FTX’s sister trading firm Alameda Research, and Zixiao “Gary” Wang, an FTX co-founder.

Both Ellison and Wang have pleaded guilty to fraud charges and are cooperating with the DOJ.

Bankman-Fried’s lawyers said they are also waiting for contents from “computers belonging to two other former FTX/Alameda employees.” They anticipate the production of the evidence from the devices “will be voluminous and critically important to the defense.”

*Excerpt from the letter to Judge Kaplan requesting an amended trial schedule. Source:* *CourtListener*

The letter also noted the superseded indictment against Bankman-Fried unsealed on Feb. 22 that bumped the number of charges from eight to 12, with new charges relating to conspiracy and fraud.

Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to the original eight charges brought against him in December.

One of Bankman-Fried's lawyers, Christian Everdell, wrote in the letter:

“Depending on the volume of the additional discovery and the timing of the productions, it may be necessary to request an adjournment of the trial, currently scheduled to begin on October 2, 2023.”

“While we are not making such an application at this time, we wanted to note this issue for the Court now,” Everdell added.

Bankman-Fried is currently released on a $250 million bond. He has been under house arrest in Palo Alto, California at his parent's house and his online activities are restricted.

What is Sam Bankman-Fried doing in this photo? Wrong answers only pic.twitter.com/q7UfaRt8f6
— Genevieve Roch-Decter, CFA (@GRDecter) February 24, 2023

The schedule for the trial and bail conditions will be discussed at a hearing on Friday, March 10.

The FTX founder also faces separate fraud-related civil lawsuits from the Commodities Futures Trading Commission and the Securities Exchange Commission. Both have been delayed until after Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial.

Terrible crypto trader gets 42 months for fraud, claiming he was a total gun

CFTC

Jeremy Spence aka “Coin Signals” scammed around $5 million from 170 investors who were unaware their crypto was used to fund a Ponzi scheme.

A crypto trader who defrauded over 170 people was sentenced to 42 months in prison on May 11 for operating a series of cryptocurrency funds claiming to make big returns but in reality were losing money and instead operated as a Ponzi scheme.

The DOJ said that 25 year old Jeremy Spence had solicited millions through false representations, “including that Spence’s crypto trading had been extremely profitable when, in fact, Spence’s trading had been consistently unprofitable.”

Spence, who operated the social media channels for a crypto investment scheme called “Coin Signals” was handed the decision by United Stated District Judge Lewis Kaplan for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Spence was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay back his victims an amount of over $2.8 million.

Spence was arrested in January 2021 by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and seperate civil charges were brought forward by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

Spence pleaded guilty to commodities fraud in November 2021 for soliciting over $5 million from unwitting crypto investors by creating various cryptocurrency funds from November 2017 until April 2019 which he falsely claimed were making returns but in reality were making losses.

One example provided by the DOJ said Spence posted a message to an online chat group claiming one of the funds made a 148% return that month.

According to Law360 U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan who presided over the case said:

"The thing I was struck by was the stupidity of the people you gulled into investing with you, there are real-life consequences to these shenanigans and they are serious."

Seeking to make a profit investors would transfer crypto to Spence to invest but as his trades weren’t making gains he created fake account balances to hide the losses. Spence started operating a Ponzi scheme using funds from new investors to pay earlier investors, with estimates that around $2 million worth of cryptocurrencies were distributed in this manner.

In a statement to the court Spence told Judge Kaplan that he is “mortified” by his own behavior, apologizing to his investors and claimed was unqualified to trade the amount he was sent adding he “entered a world that [he] was completely unprepared for”.

Cointelegraph requested comment from Spence's legal representatives but did not receive a response within the time given.

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