{"id":29052,"date":"2023-09-01T14:52:47","date_gmt":"2023-09-01T18:52:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cryptocornercafe.com\/cafe\/?p=29052"},"modified":"2023-09-01T14:52:47","modified_gmt":"2023-09-01T18:52:47","slug":"ftxs-sam-bankman-fried-puts-trial-defense-together-with-7-expert-witnesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cryptocornercafe.com\/cafe\/2023\/09\/01\/ftxs-sam-bankman-fried-puts-trial-defense-together-with-7-expert-witnesses\/","title":{"rendered":"FTX\u2019s-Sam Bankman-Fried Puts Trial Defense Together With 7 Expert Witnesses"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the founder of the defunct FTX exchange<\/a>, is set to face trial in October, barring any postponement<\/a>. Amid the fracas, the former exchange CEO has maintained that he isn\u2019t guilty of all these charges<\/a> leveled against him and will be reportedly bringing expert witnesses to prove his innocence.<\/p>\n

Sam Bankman-Fried Defense To Call Seven Expert Witnesses\u00a0<\/h2>\n

According to a Bloomberg report<\/a>, 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\u2019s defense, and if so, they will be allegedly paid $1,200 an hour to testify in favor of FTX\u2019s former CEO.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This means that SBF\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to the defendant\u2019s notice, SBF\u2019s 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\u2019s software infrastructure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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<\/a> the charge of him violating campaign finance rules.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The charge was dropped because it didn\u2019t form part of the US government\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n

DOJ Objects To SBF\u2019s Expert Witnesses<\/h2>\n

In reply to SBF\u2019s notice of his expert witnesses, the government has filed<\/a> a motion to exclude the testimony of these witnesses. The prosecutors argue that these experts and their accompanying disclosures suffer from an \u201carray of deficiencies\u201d that necessitate their exclusion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For one, their opinions have no basis as required by the Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure<\/a>. According to the prosecutors, their opinions, among other things, are \u201cirrelevant, unfairly prejudicial, and confusing to the jury.\u201d<\/p>\n

They further argue that these experts will offer legal conclusions that \u201cinvade\u201d the power of the court and the jury, so the court should exercise its \u201cgatekeeping authority\u201d and preclude their testimonies.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Prosecutor\u2019s motion contains extensive arguments on why each of these expert witnesses\u2019 opinions should be excluded. They stated that Professor Smith\u2019s testimony is \u201cirrelevant, confusing, and a waste of time\u201d since SBF\u2019s trial doesn\u2019t include a charge stemming from the defendant\u2019s \u201cillegal campaign finance scheme.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, they argue that Mr. Vinella\u2019s 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 \u201cqualifications, methodology, and the relevance and reliability of his proposed testimony.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr. Vinella seems to be SBF\u2019s primary expert witness as he is set to opine on various topics, including FTX\u2019s operations and how the company took \u201ccommercially reasonable steps\u201d to protect customers\u2019 funds despite the lack of regulatory clarity in the US.\u00a0<\/p>\n

SBF currently faces seven counts of financial fraud<\/a>, including wire fraud on FTX and Alameda customers, securities fraud, and money laundering.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the founder of the defunct FTX exchange<\/a>, is set to face trial in October, barring any postponement<\/a>. Amid the fracas, the former exchange CEO has maintained that he isn\u2019t guilty of all these charges<\/a> leveled against him and will be reportedly bringing expert witnesses to prove his innocence.<\/p>\n

Sam Bankman-Fried Defense To Call Seven Expert Witnesses\u00a0<\/h2>\n

According to a Bloomberg report<\/a>, 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\u2019s defense, and if so, they will be allegedly paid $1,200 an hour to testify in favor of FTX\u2019s former CEO.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This means that SBF\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

According to the defendant\u2019s notice, SBF\u2019s 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\u2019s software infrastructure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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<\/a> the charge of him violating campaign finance rules.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The charge was dropped because it didn\u2019t form part of the US government\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

DOJ Objects To SBF\u2019s Expert Witnesses<\/h2>\n

In reply to SBF\u2019s notice of his expert witnesses, the government has filed<\/a> a motion to exclude the testimony of these witnesses. The prosecutors argue that these experts and their accompanying disclosures suffer from an \u201carray of deficiencies\u201d that necessitate their exclusion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For one, their opinions have no basis as required by the Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure<\/a>. According to the prosecutors, their opinions, among other things, are \u201cirrelevant, unfairly prejudicial, and confusing to the jury.\u201d<\/p>\n

They further argue that these experts will offer legal conclusions that \u201cinvade\u201d the power of the court and the jury, so the court should exercise its \u201cgatekeeping authority\u201d and preclude their testimonies.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Prosecutor\u2019s motion contains extensive arguments on why each of these expert witnesses\u2019 opinions should be excluded. They stated that Professor Smith\u2019s testimony is \u201cirrelevant, confusing, and a waste of time\u201d since SBF\u2019s trial doesn\u2019t include a charge stemming from the defendant\u2019s \u201cillegal campaign finance scheme.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, they argue that Mr. Vinella\u2019s 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 \u201cqualifications, methodology, and the relevance and reliability of his proposed testimony.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr. Vinella seems to be SBF\u2019s primary expert witness as he is set to opine on various topics, including FTX\u2019s operations and how the company took \u201ccommercially reasonable steps\u201d to protect customers\u2019 funds despite the lack of regulatory clarity in the US.\u00a0<\/p>\n

SBF currently faces seven counts of financial fraud<\/a>, including wire fraud on FTX and Alameda customers, securities fraud, and money laundering.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_layout":"default_layout","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blockchain"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptocornercafe.com\/cafe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptocornercafe.com\/cafe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptocornercafe.com\/cafe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptocornercafe.com\/cafe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/cryptocornercafe.com\/cafe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29052\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptocornercafe.com\/cafe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptocornercafe.com\/cafe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptocornercafe.com\/cafe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}