Sam Bankman-Fried plans to rely on the "counsel of the defense" in criminal proceedings
Date: 2023-08-24 Author: Karina Ziganova Categories: IN WORLD
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried intends to blame his case against the US government on "advocacy advice" provided by the company's internal legal team and renowned Silicon Valley law firm Fenwick & West.
In an Aug. 23 letter to Judge Lewis Kaplan, Bankman-Freed's lawyers wrote that their client received legal advice from Fenwick in making some of his decisions, including using auto-delete features and ephemeral messaging apps like Signal. The lawyers also noted that the law firm provided legal advice on other matters, including loans to FTX and Alameda executives and intercompany payments between FTX and Alameda.
Lawyers say Bankman-Fried acted in "good faith" as Fenwick lawyers and FTX in-house lawyers, including Dan Friedberg, Kang San, Ryan Miller and others, were involved in reviewing and approving decisions related to these and other matters. They added:
“Evidence that the accused relied on a lawyer is relevant to the question of intent and is not limited to situations where the defense can find that the accused formally sought the advice of a lawyer, received legal advice and followed that advice.”
Fenwick is a leading technology and life sciences law firm in the United States. Some of the law firm's main clients include Coinbase, OpenSea, and Meta.
Fenwick has not yet responded to CryptoSlate's request for comment at the time of publication.
Meanwhile, the letter also blamed the US Justice Department's request for more information, noting that the government prevented the defense team from obtaining relevant documents that would have helped its case from Fenwick.
The lawyers stated:
"It's outrageous that the government is asking for specific documents from the defense when the government has helped ensure that we can't get those same documents."
On August 22, Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty to fraud and conspiracy, and his lawyers complained about poor prison conditions. His trial is due to begin in October.
