The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has successfully won a motion to prevent Sam Bankman-Fried’s proposed expert witnesses from testifying in the upcoming FTX trial.
A new lawsuit shows that Bankman-Fried’s proposed witnesses either did not meet testifying standards or were excluded due to a government request.
In the document, the DOJ won a motion to exclude testimony from law professor and former Federal Election Commission Chairman Bradley Smith, saying his testimony is intended to instruct the jury on legal issues or is irrelevant.
The government further won a motion to disqualify Lawrence Akka, a British lawyer, from testifying since his testimony would include commentary on FTX’s terms of service. According to the law, experts are not allowed to provide ‘legal advice on the meaning of the contract terms in question’.
Another witness denied by the court at the request of the prosecutor was Dr. Peter U. Vinella, a financial industry consultant. He was denied because he would only provide background information that was determined to be “limited to no bearing on the issues in this case” and could potentially mislead the jury.
In addition, some of the defense teams’ proposed witnesses did not meet the standards for admission and were rejected. These include data analytics and forensics expert Brian Kim, Andrew Di Wu, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan, and Thomas Bishop, who works for a consulting firm.
However, the judge said it may be possible for the defense to call Bishop and Kim to rebut the testimony of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Special Agent Peter Eason.
Bankman-Fried is accused of defrauding investors and mishandling billions of dollars of customer funds. His trial will start in October this year. If convicted, he faces decades behind bars.
Last week, prosecutors objected to Bankman-Fried’s attorney’s proposed questions for potential jurors. Bankman-Fried’s parents are also being sued by FTX for alleged misallocation of funds.
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