FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Refiles for Temporary Release Ahead of Trial

Lawyers for Sam Beman freed, filed yet another letter to the judge overseeing the case once again hoping that the FTX founder can get out of jail and get out of Brooklyn before his trial starts joining us. Now to discuss is Coindesk global policy and regulation. Managing editor Nick Day, who was also the editor of Coindesk State of crypto newsletter. Good morning, Nick. Hey, good morning. Ok. Walk us through those latest filings. WWWW. What is he really hates Brooklyn, doesn't he? Yeah. So this is the uh latest attempt. You could maybe say it's the third official attempt, uh, by be Winfrey's lawyers to get him out of jail for the trial. Uh A lot of the arguments are very similar to what they've presented before. They say that the time he is spending in the M DC is hampering his ability to work on his defense. And so they want him to be released on starting October 2nd so that he could work on his defense with his attorneys, you know, after the trial days are done. So, you know, the trial, let's, I don't think we have a specific time yet for when they'll start and end. But let's say if a trial day is 9 30 to 5, then after five o'clock they want to be able to go with him to their offices to continue working on, uh, their defense and whatever they need to sort out for the next day. Well, um, so that, that'd be wonderful for him. I, I, interestingly enough, I, I think most people who end up in jail in Brooklyn don't get that. Uh, such a luxury. Uh, his, his trial is supposed to begin in New York next week. So, how many years, how many years are we looking at for this guy? Yeah. So this is, um, this is, I guess one thing where things have been kind of really blown out of report. And so, um, you know, yesterday we wrote for the, you know, SPF trial newsletter. Uh, you know, if being con is convicted, first off, here's what the trial might look like here. You know, we talked a little bit about what the defense has to do, what the prosecution has to do. Should he be convicted on, you know, whatever all of the charges, the headlines saying that he'll spend 100 years in prison or 100 50 years in prison or whatever. They, they're really not accurate. Um, you know, I get the sense that there's probably a lot of people in crypto who want him to spend that much time in prison but, you know, reality is if he's convicted on multiple conspiracy to commit fraud charges and, you know, one wire fraud charge or two wire fraud charges, uh, the judge is going to most likely look at those and say, well, these are all basically the same core conduct. And so, you know, it's not gonna be a consecutive sentence, it'll be a concurrent sentence. And, um, you know, realistically he's probably not gonna spend more than, you know, a few decades, which to be clear is still like in a, like a massively long period of time. Sure. But I mean, that's still, you know, 20 years in prison. Uh, he's 31 right now. He'll be in his fifties, uh, you know, when he exits. So it, it's still a massively long time, but it's a lot more likely that he'd spend 20 years than 100 years. I don't remember anything in my thirties and forties. So I, I think he, he, he's not missing much if that happens to be honest, just saying, uh, anything else you're looking at? Yeah. So, you know, as you said, this thing starts next week, we're starting to get a better sense of a lot of the finer details. One of the more interesting details to me in the filing from Mre's attorneys last night is they said the DOJ has more than 50 potential witnesses. Uh We have not seen, you know, a full or final list. Um, at this point we have, I think less than a dozen names from the DOJ that we're for sure going to see. So, uh really curious to see who else is on that list of potential witnesses and of course, how many of those potential witnesses will become actual witnesses? Uh It's very possible that the DOJ has lined up a couple of potential witnesses who they either decide they don't want to call or they don't need to call because their testimony would be redundant or whatever reason. Uh So we're gonna try and get more information on that. Um One thing we didn't mention before but worth pointing out, uh Beres defense team did point, uh did say that he would agree to a set of pretty restrictive conditions, uh in order to be let out including, you know, details like, uh a gag order preventing him from speaking to anyone, uh being guarded by a security person. Uh, you know, when he's not with his attorneys having no access to the internet or electronic devices at all. Uh So we'll see if the judge and the DOJ feel that these are adequate to, you know, what he's allowed to do or not allowed to do. Um I imagine we'll probably get a ruling on that pretty shortly or even objection from the DOJ pretty shortly because again, we're down to the last seven days before this thing starts off in earnest, I think for a gen Z getting, uh not having access to digital devices is the equivalent of cruel and unusual punishment. I think that's probably a claim they'll try to make. No, uh they're saying he's gonna, he would agree to, you know, complete ban on his for the duration of the trial. So, we'll see. Well, let's uh indeed, let's see. Thank you very much, Nick. That was global policy regulation. Managing editor Nick Day, who was also the editor of the state of crypto newsletter.