The highly-anticipated fraud trial of disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried reportedly could be delayed after his lawyers complained that he did not have adequate time to review the evidence.
According to a new report by Reuters, Judge Lewis Kaplan is considering pushing back the trial five months and combining it with a previously scheduled case related to Bankman-Fried’s forgery charges in the Bahamas.
Bankman-Fried’s attorneys allege that officials failed to give their client hard drives containing millions of pages of key evidence for him to review.
As stated by Kaplan, according to Reuters,
“If the defendant in good conscience feels that he needs a postponement … they can ask.”
However, the report says that Kaplan isn’t likely to delay the trial from its original date solely because of the sheer volume of evidence that exists and that the defense would have to provide a “genuine and unanticipated need.”
Furthermore, Kaplan says there’s no evidence that prosecutors acted in bad faith as the majority of the evidence came from Bankman-Fried’s own personal Google account, meaning that he had access to it before his bail was revoked.
Previously, Bankman-Fried’s lawyers asked if they could be granted unlimited prison visitation with their client. Days later, they asked if he could be temporarily released ahead of his trial.
Bankman-Fried’s bail was revoked earlier this month after he was alleged to be tampering with witnesses. If the trial is combined with the other, it would move from October 3rd, 2023 to March 11, 2024, according to the report.
Bankman-Fried is charged with defrauding investors and mishandling billions of dollars worth of customer funds related to the 2022 collapse of the crypto exchange FTX. If convicted, he faces decades behind bars.
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