Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of FTX, has requested his release; however, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals has maintained the decision to refuse his request. This choice was made in response to an appeal by Sam Bankman-Fried’s (SBF) legal counsel, which was principally motivated by First Amendment issues. These arguments, however, did not persuade the court. It strengthens SBF’s ongoing incarceration as he deals with legal issues. A New York district court previously turned down his plea for temporary parole so that he may review crucial papers in advance of his October 3 trial.
In a separate decision, Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan, who is in charge of SBF’s criminal prosecution, has blocked the testimony of a number of potential witnesses in the future trial. British attorney Lawrence Akka, Thomas Bishop (president of consulting firm Tom Bishop & Associates LLC), Joseph Pimbley (principal of consulting firm Maxwell Consulting), Brian Kim (director of consulting firm Guidepost Solutions), Bradley Smith (law professor at Capital University School of Law), Peter Vinella (managing director of consulting firm PVA Toucan International), and Andrew Di Wu (associate professor at the University of California, Berkeley) are among those who are prohibited from testifying.
These witnesses had previously been targeted for exclusion by the prosecution due to their failure to adhere to the requirements for expert testimony. Despite the legal team of SBF objecting, government expert Peter Easton will be permitted to testify regarding clients’ fiat deposits. On September 12, Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected a number of applications for Bankman-Fried’s release until trial, stating that the predicament was his own doing. SBF’s criminal trial is still scheduled to start on October 3.
