FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried can’t adequately put together for trial in six weeks whereas in jail with out correct entry to computer systems, mandatory medicines to assist him focus, and a greater weight-reduction plan than bread, water and peanut butter, his attorneys informed a Justice of the Peace decide Tuesday.
The lawyers made their complaints at a Manhattan federal court docket listening to after Bankman-Fried pleaded not responsible to seven costs he’ll face at his Oct. 3 trial, together with wire fraud and a number of conspiracy counts.
Bankman-Fried was extradited from the Bahamas in December after prosecutors mentioned he stole billions of {dollars} in FTX buyer deposits, spending tens of hundreds of thousands on his companies, speculative enterprise investments, charitable donations and on unlawful marketing campaign contributions aimed toward influencing cryptocurrency regulation in Washington.
The 31-year-old California man was making his first court docket look in a colorless beige jail uniform since his $250 million bail was revoked 10 days in the past by Choose Lewis A. Kaplan. The decide had granted a request by prosecutors to jail him after agreeing that the fallen cryptocurrency whiz had repeatedly tried to influence witnesses in opposition to him.
Justice of the Peace Choose Sarah Netburn, presiding over Tuesday’s listening to, informed Bankman-Fried’s attorneys that she wouldn’t overrule Kaplan’s rulings about entry to computer systems, however that she would see if she may get the Metropolitan Detention Middle in Brooklyn to supply medicines and a weight-reduction plan extra carefully aligned to the defendant’s vegan preferences.
Lawyer Mark Cohen informed Netburn that Bankman-Fried hadn’t obtained remedy that’s mandatory for him to focus since he was despatched to jail on Aug. 12.
He mentioned his consumer continued to be served a “flesh weight-reduction plan,” leaving him to rely solely on bread, water and generally peanut butter.
“Your Honor, that’s outrageous and must be remedied,” he mentioned of a person who had shuffled into the courtroom, his legs shackled.
One other protection legal professional, Christian Everdell, informed Netburn that Bankman-Fried was being denied the appropriate to adequately put together for trial as a result of he was solely allowed to overview hundreds of thousands of pages of proof two days every week.
“There is no such thing as a method for him to successfully put together for his protection,” Everdell mentioned.
Earlier than his bail was revoked, Bankman-Fried had been permitted to stay along with his mother and father of their Palo Alto, California, residence with strict guidelines limiting his entry to digital units.
Kaplan ordered him jailed after concluding that there was possible trigger to consider he had dedicated the federal crime of tried witness tampering.
He cited an try by Bankman-Fried to speak with the FTX normal counsel in January and his disclosure a number of week in the past to a journalist of some non-public writings by Caroline Ellison, his former girlfriend and the ex-CEO of Alameda Analysis, a cryptocurrency buying and selling hedge fund that was one in every of his companies.
The decide mentioned the writings had been sorts of issues {that a} former romantic accomplice was unlikely to share with anybody “besides to harm, discredit, and frighten the topic of the fabric.”