Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) was found guilty of breaking his bail terms on August 11, and the judge ordered that he be detained in the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC).
In a letter to US District Judge Lewis Kaplan dated August 18, SBF’s attorneys requested that SBF be freed on weekdays so that they could effectively prepare for his case. The trial is set to begin on October 2, and the attorneys have already rejected the prosecution’ original proposal for SBF’s preparation.
Two days a week, without the resources necessary to manage the volume of his case files, is all that federal prosecutors apparently handed SBF. According to SBF’s legal team, this amount of time for preparation is “entirely inadequate” and violates his rights under the Sixth Amendment.
In violation of his Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial, Mr. Bankman-Fried will not be able to effectively contribute to his defense with this.
The legal team for SBF, led by Christian Everdell, believes that their client should be allowed bail so that he may investigate the federal government’s case against him. They said he couldn’t have done it from behind bars because of a lack of time and resources.
Everdell said that prosecutors have submitted “three-quarters of a million pages of Slack communication” during the last week to emphasize the sheer volume of material SBF must evaluate. He mentioned how difficult it was to assess such papers at the moment.
If approved, SBF will be permitted to use a laptop connected to the internet during his meetings with his attorneys in the federal courts on weekdays. His legal team thinks this will get them ready for his fraud trial quickly and efficiently.
The circumstances surrounding Sam Bankman-Fried’s revocation of bail suggest that the prosecution could be concerned about giving him so much breathing room while he prepares his case. It has been revealed that SBF spoke with some witnesses over VPN while on bail at his parent’s residence, which led to Judge Kaplan finding him guilty of breaking his bail restrictions.
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