Judge Denies Bankman-Fried’s Request for Key Documents in Fraud Case: Report

Sam Bankman-Fried’s Request for Documents Denied

Sam Bankman-Fried, the co-founder of FTX, has had his request for documents from Silicon Valley law firm Fenwick & West LLP, which he wanted to use as part of his defense strategy in his federal fraud case, denied, as reported by Bloomberg. Bankman-Fried sought the documents to back up his assertion that he had acted on legal advice in the course of the activities for which he is now being prosecuted.

Bankman-Fried’s legal team recently asked the presiding judge in the case to either provide the documents obtained from Fenwick & West or to issue a subpoena to obtain them. However, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan denied the request, describing it as an unjustified “fishing expedition”.

In order to defend himself, Bankman-Fried’s legal team had devised a plan to contend that he had been guided by the counsel of the law firm Fenwick & West. Bloomberg reported that this tactic is frequently used by those accused of criminal activity to oppose prosecutors’ assertions of deliberate violations of the law.

The advice given by Fenwick & West is said to have encompassed various matters, such as the use of encrypted messaging applications, multi-million dollar loans to FTX personnel and adhering to banking regulations in the US, which Bankman-Fried’s lawyers have asserted are essential to the accusations brought against their client.

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Bankman-Fried, who is currently on trial for two criminal charges, is accused of masterminding a complex swindle in which billions of dollars of FTX customer money was illicitly taken and used for speculative investments, personal outlays, and even political contributions.

On June 22, FTX brought a lawsuit to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware in order to reclaim over $700 million from K5 Global, Mount Olympus Capital, SGN Albany Capital, their related entities, and K5 co-owners Michael Kives and Bryan Baum. FTX claims that the money was moved from Alameda Research, one of their affiliated companies, to the aforementioned entities via a series of shell companies, and is therefore seeking to reverse these transactions.

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