SBF’s Plea for Weekday Freedom
Days after a federal judge revoked FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s bail, he now seeks permission to spend five weekdays outside the lockup to collaborate with his legal team on his defense case.
Challenges Faced at the Metropolitan Detention Center
According to a letter sent to Judge Lewis Kaplan, legal representatives for SBF stated that their client faced difficulties reviewing the extensive document accumulation related to the case while at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
Christian Everdell, attorney for SBF, highlighted the challenge by stating, “Just last week the government produced three-quarters of a million pages of Slack communications, which were supposed to be produced months ago, that Mr. Bankman-Fried will have no hope of reviewing under this schedule.”
Speeding Up the Proceedings
Everdell further emphasized the need for accelerating the proceedings. Providing SBF with an internet-enabled laptop on courthouse premises would be vital, especially given that his fraud trial is just around the corner in October.
Allegations Against SBF
SBF maintains his innocence in the face of allegations of masterminding a vast fraud scheme. This scheme purportedly involved unauthorized access to billions from FTX customer funds for his personal use.
Prosecutors’ Response
Prosecutors argue that unless Bankman-Fried discloses information about the advice he received and its origin promptly, he should be excluded from introducing this defense during the trial.
The prosecution has offered to provide information on hard drives usable at the MDC. But due to limitations, all the information can’t be stored on a laptop, making direct access for SBF difficult. Previous plans for laptop access were denied by prison authorities.
Awaiting the Judge’s Decision
All eyes are on Judge Lewis Kaplan, as the decision on Bankman-Fried’s requests lies ahead of the scheduled trial.
