Sam Bankman-Fried lawyers file new letter motion in trial

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Sam Bankman-Fried lawyers file new letter motion in trial

In the ongoing criminal trial of Sam Bankman-Fried, lawyers for the FTX founder filed new letter motions related to the cross-examination of two key prosecution witnesses.

In a letter Monday, Bankman-Fried's lawyers asked Judge Lewis Kaplan for permission to question Gary Wang on the involvement of lawyers in structuring loans from Bankman-Fried's trading firm Alameda Research to Wang personally. The defense contends that the loan details are relevant to rebutting federal charges that Bankman-Fried tried to hide the source of funds through money laundering.

questioning on the lawyers' role would support Bankman-Fried's claim that he acted in good faith.

A docket entry indicates the judge has denied the testimony request, likely because Wang had already completed his testimony.

It could unfairly suggest victims may be repaid, they said.

Anthropic is the creator of ChatGPT competitor Claude, which has received billions of investments from Google and Amazon this month, totaling around $6 billion.

Bankman-Fried's team contends that the evidence rebuts the prosecution claims his investments were risky or losing money. His attorneys agreed to a limiting jury instruction on the purpose of the testimony.

In another request Tuesday, the defense asked to cross-examine Caroline Ellison on attorneys' involvement in setting auto-deletion policies for messages at FTX and Alameda. This may rebuke allegations that Bankman-Fried sought to conceal wrongdoing.