Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried Seeks Adjusted Prison Schedule for Trial Preparation
Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of FTX, is reportedly requesting a more flexible prison schedule to adequately prepare for his upcoming trial in October.
According to a Bloomberg report, Bankman-Fried’s legal team has written a letter to U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, advocating for the former FTX CEO to be allowed out of prison five days a week to review essential documents.
Bankman-Fried’s lawyer, Christian Everdell, emphasized that the current prison schedule hampers his ability to comprehensively review the extensive volume of documents crucial for his defense. Everdell pointed out that, even recently, a substantial volume of Slack communications—long overdue—was provided by the government, further complicating the preparation process.
In the letter addressed to Judge Kaplan, Everdell also requested access to an internet-enabled laptop and time for consultations with Bankman-Fried’s legal team. Despite the prosecution’s initial suggestion of transferring Bankman-Fried to a smaller facility with internet-enabled laptop access, this proposal has reportedly been met with resistance from prison officials.
The Bloomberg report noted that prosecutors find it unfeasible to load all necessary documents onto a laptop. Instead, they offered to provide the documents on hard drives, which Bankman-Fried could then use on computers available at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn—the primary detention center for federal trial defendants in New York.
Bankman-Fried’s legal troubles arose with his arrest in December 2022, following a range of criminal charges including wire fraud, commodities fraud, and securities fraud. Initially, he was placed under house arrest on a bail of $250 million. However, this arrangement was revoked earlier this month after allegations of witness tampering surfaced. The trial is scheduled to commence on October 2nd.
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