The investors and investors who had FTX shares can speak to their expectations of how FTX would hold their money, while the cooperating witnesses can speak to their interactions with the defendant and their understanding of the purpose of certain statements and actions of the defendant, Rehn said.
The letter alleged that the company was not providing any treatment of customer assets and other issues.
The Department of Justice intends to call retail customers who 'transferred tens of thousands of dollars worth of assets' and institutional clients who moved tens of millions of dollars worth of assets to FTX, with the expectation that the exchange would custody these funds.
The letter did not identify any of the prospective witnesses or say how many the DOJ intends to call. The second letter said the customer witnesses, who are likely to testify for less than 30 minutes each, and will involve minimal, if any, exhibits. The Department of Justice identified former FTX Chief Technology Officer Gary Wang, former FTX head of Engineering Nishad Singh and former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison as three cooperating witnesses who all pleaded guilty to charges related to the exchange. Another former FTX executive, Ryan Salame, has pleaded guilty to charges but had not agreed to testify as of late last week. The DOJ is also planning to call forward at least two other witnesses to testify under a grant of immunity, but has not publicly identified them yet.
The DOJ identified one of the customer witnesses, which would take at least approximately three days and require multiple forms of travel.
The DOJ wants the judge to approve testimony via video conference, supervised by a U.S. government official possibly at the embassy, instead of requiring in-person testimony. The defense does not agree to the motion, the DOJ said in a statement.