As per the legal representatives of Sam Bankman-Fried, the criminal trial against him is still awaiting the production of more than 3.6 million documents by the prosecutors. Mr. Bankman-Fried, who previously served as the CEO of FTX, has been accused of multiple fraud charges, and his defense team has asserted that the prosecutors have failed to meet the discovery deadlines for crucial evidence that could aid in his defense.
In a letter addressed to United States District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan on June 5, the legal representatives of Sam Bankman-Fried stated that the government had failed to provide all the data from five electronic devices that were supposed to be presented for discovery by the end of March. These devices included a laptop and an iPhone that belonged to Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research, and a laptop owned by Gary Wang, the co-founder of FTX.
As per the correspondence submitted by the lawyers representing Sam Bankman-Fried:
“As the trial date is now less than four months away, the defense is concerned that the late production of such voluminous and important discovery will impact the preparation of the defense.”
Sam Bankman-Fried is scheduled to appear in court on October 2 to face multiple accusations of fraud, illegal political contributions, and bribery of the Chinese government. However, he is not in favor of postponing the trial date, and his legal team may file supplementary motions based on the evidence produced during discovery if it provides grounds for such motions. This was stated in the aforementioned correspondence submitted by his lawyers.
Furthermore, the letter highlighted that the government has not provided relevant information pertaining to FTX debtors. The defense team argued that these delayed disclosures have an incremental impact on their preparedness for the trial. Additionally, the letter disclosed the quantity of information that is yet to be furnished by the government.
“The five productions thus far are voluminous, totaling over 3.6 million documents and over 10 million pages.”
The letter further revealed that the government had made four productions of documents, comprising approximately 1.1 million records. The most recent production, received by the defense on May 25, contained nearly 2.5 million documents. This quantity of information is more than three times the volume of documents that were previously provided to the defense team and could have a significant impact on the case.
According to reports, bankers at FTX, who are responsible for rescuing the beleaguered company, are exploring the possibility of selling shares in a firm that is part of the presently popular artificial intelligence industry.
On the 6th of June, Semafor, a news outlet, reported that Perella Weinberg, the investment banking company that has been retained by the insolvent exchange, has been promoting the sale of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of shares in Anthropic, an artificial intelligence startup, to potential investors.
As per the balance sheets of FTX during its bankruptcy in November 2022, the company possessed Anthropic stock worth $500 million, which is presently estimated to be significantly more valuable due to the ongoing boom in the artificial intelligence sector.
Anthropic reportedly secured $450 million in its most recent Series C funding round on May 23, with an estimated valuation of $4.6 billion.
