Seven professional witnesses anticipated to testify on behalf of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried have been rejected, in accordance with a ruling dated Sept. 21.
Bankman-Fried’s record of now-excluded witnesses featured specialists in a number of areas, together with marketing consultant Thomas Bishop, information analyst Brian Kim, regulation professor Bradley Smith, British barrister Lawrence Akka, marketing consultant Joseph Pimbley, monetary marketing consultant Peter Vinella, and assistant enterprise professor Andrew Di Wu.
U.S. District Choose Lewis Kaplan dismissed testimony from these witnesses for varied causes, together with shortcomings in every particular person’s acknowledged opinions and the overall irrelevance of deliberate testimony. Authorities prosecutors had requested Choose Kaplan to reject Bankman-Fried’s witnesses in August.
The choose additionally excluded some witnesses on the chance that testimony might confuse the jury and excluded some authorized specialists as a result of their deliberate testimony aimed to instruct the jury on problems with regulation.
Regardless of the rejections, Bankman-Fried shall be allowed to name 4 of the above professional witnesses, however solely in response to authorities witnesses.
Choose says authorities witness can testify
Choose Kaplan additionally declined Bankman-Fried’s personal request to exclude testimony from Peter Easton, a College of Notre Dame accounting professor who is predicted to supply testimony associated to buyer deposits as a witness for the prosecution.
The choose mentioned that Bankman-Fried’s objections are “meritless or moot” and don’t deal with all of Easton’s deliberate testimony. He mentioned that Easton has related, specialised data and permitted Easton to depend on information that he didn’t accumulate.
Prosecutors are additionally anticipated to name former FTX associates, together with Caroline Ellison, Gary Wang, and Nishad Singh, as witnesses. These witnesses weren’t talked about within the newest submitting.
Throughout his trial, Bankman-Fried will face seven prices largely associated to fraud, cash laundering, and conspiracy to commit these actions. Prosecutors are anticipated to pursue different prices, together with marketing campaign finance prices, at a later date.
The submit Courtroom rejects testimony from seven professional witnesses put ahead by Sam Bankman-Fried appeared first on CryptoSlate.
