Just a week following the Department of Justice’s decision to revoke his bail, Sam Bankman-Fried, the co-founder of FTX, is now seeking permission to spend five weekdays outside his incarceration cell to collaborate with his legal team on his defense case. The move comes after Bankman-Fried had his $250 million bail revoked due to alleged witness tampering.
As per a latest report, Bankman-Fried’s lawyers have submitted a letter to US District Judge Lewis Kaplan, outlining their plea for the entrepreneur to be allowed to work with his legal team at the federal courthouse in Manhattan. They argue that the massive amount of documents involved in the case is impossible to review properly within the confines of the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, where Bankman-Fried is currently being held.
Christian Everdell, Bankman-Fried’s lawyer, emphasized that the government had recently provided a substantial volume of evidence in the form of three-quarters of a million pages of Slack communications, which had not been produced on time. Everdell contends that the entrepreneur needs access to an internet-enabled laptop at the courthouse to expedite the review process, especially given the impending fraud trial scheduled for October.
Bankman-Fried faces charges of orchestrating a long-running fraud scheme that allegedly granted him unauthorized access to billions of dollars in FTX customer funds for personal use. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
In response, prosecutors have expressed concern about Bankman-Fried’s compliance with sharing information about his planned defense strategy. They warned that failure to provide this information promptly might hinder his ability to introduce the defense at the trial.
Farmington State Bank & FTX Connection
Meanwhile, an update concerning FTX, the Federal Reserve Board of the United States, in conjunction with the Washington State Department of Financial Institutions, has announced an enforcement action against Farmington State Bank.
The enforcement is linked to the bank’s improper alteration of its business plan in 2022 without appropriate notification and approval. Farmington received over $11 million from Alameda Research’s parent company, FBH Corporation, raising questions about the financial institution’s strategic shifts.
The Federal Reserve’s action aims to ensure an orderly wind-down of Farmington’s operations while safeguarding depositors and the Deposit Insurance Fund. The enforcement also restricts Farmington and FBH from undertaking certain activities without prior approval from supervisors, including making dividends, capital distributions, and dissipating cash assets.
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