Bankman-Fried Wishes 2nd Crack at ‘Bad Lawful Advice’ Defense

Sam Bankman-Fried wishes another shot at mounting a “bad lawful counsel” protection.

In a filing Monday (Oct. 9) night, attorneys for the former FTX head have requested the court’s permission to problem enterprise co-founder Gary Wang about lawful guidance he obtained when agreeing to loans from Alameda Study, FTX’s sister firm.

As PYMNTS has noted, Decide Lewis Kaplan has already blocked Bankman-Fried from introducing proof in assist of an “advice of counsel defense” at his demo, which commences its second week on Tuesday (Oct. 10).

“Bankman-Fried and his legal professionals experienced been hoping to argue that the involvement of FTX’s personal attorneys in lots of of the issues underneath scrutiny belies the ability of the FTX CEO to have acted with legal intent,” that report reported.

In the court docket filing, the attorneys argue that the prosecution has by now gotten Wang to testify about the $200 million to $300 million of loans from Alameda, which he utilized for enterprise investments and buy of a house in the Bahamas.

Wang experienced advised the FBI he “didn’t assume the lawyers would tell him to signal a little something that was unlawful,” the submitting mentioned.

“Mr. Wang’s comprehension of the lawyers’ involvement in the financial loans is instantly relevant to Mr. Bankman-Fried’s very good faith and lack of criminal intent,” protection lawyers wrote.

“Mr. Wang’s being familiar with that these have been true loans — structured by attorneys and memorialized in formal promissory notes that imposed genuine curiosity payment obligations — is related to rebut the inference that these ended up simply sham loans directed by Mr. Bankman-Fried to conceal the supply of the resources.”

Wang, FTX’s previous main technologies officer, is a person of a few former large-stage FTX executives who have pleaded responsible to their part in the exchange’s collapse and have agreed to cooperate in the prosecution of what the govt has called “one of the most important economical frauds in American historical past.”

In court docket very last week, Wang testified about what he reported were fake assurances from Bankman-Fried to FTX prospects and investors that the exchange was a protected buying and selling platform with refined threat mitigation measures to safeguard purchaser property.

And whilst he was allegedly aware of the multi-billion-dollar deficit at Alameda Research and FTX, Bankman-Fried continuously informed buyers and traders that “FTX was fine.”

“FTX was not great,” Wang advised the jury, “because FTX did not have sufficient belongings for client withdrawals.”