Sam Bankman-Fried Wastes No Time Bashing Biglaw Firm Sullivan & Cromwell In Latest Filing

//

Sam Bankman-Fried (Photo by Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is still facing a heaping helping of legal woes from the events that led to the crypto exchange’s collapse. In his latest filing, he’s asked the federal judge presiding over his case to throw out the majority of charges against him. The kindest thing that can be said about that strategy is you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.

googletag.cmd.push( function() { // Display ad. googletag.display( "div-id-for-top-300x250" ); });

As Lewis Brisbois’s Sean P. Shecter told Law360, “I think this is a lot of, ‘Ok we know there is going to be a lot of evidence, we’re weighing whether we can win at trial, let’s create a record to preserve our appellate rights even if it involves throwing spaghetti against the wall.'”

Sponsored Exploring ESG through the Lens of Risk Management Join us on May 11th and learn how to frame ESG as risk management and the trends to watch. From Axiom and Above The Law  

But the truly interesting tidbit in the filing is SBF’s request to have FTX’s current leadership and Sullivan & Cromwell —  the Biglaw firm advising FTX in bankruptcy who also represented the company on transactions and regulatory matters pre-collapse — designated as part of the “prosecution team.” He argues FTX and S&C have offered so much cooperation to the government that they’ve been “effectively deputized the company to aid the prosecution.”

The company has “already determined that Mr. Bankman-Fried is guilty and prematurely staked their reputations on it,” Bankman-Fried told the court.

“The FTX debtors have no incentive to look for or provide exculpatory material to the government, which is the only practical way the defense will ever receive it,” he said.

googletag.cmd.push( function() { // Display ad. googletag.display( "div-id-for-middle-300x250" ); }); googletag.cmd.push( function() { // Display ad. googletag.display( "div-id-for-storycontent-440x100" ); }); googletag.cmd.push( function() { // Display ad. googletag.display( "div-id-for-in-story-youtube-1x1" ); });

The filing went on to say the firm and FTX have become “public mouthpieces” for the prosecution, turning over “cherry-picked” documents that implicate Bankman-Fried. If the judge grants SBF’s request, both Sullivan & Cromwell and FTX will be obligated to turn over potentially exculpatory documents to Bankman-Fried, as if they were prosecutors themselves.

As reported by Yahoo!, while they haven’t offered comment about this specific filing, FTX and S&C have defended their cooperation:

Sponsored Sponsored Lex Machina Expands The Power Of Legal Analytics To Litigation In State Courts Lex Machina expands its powerful machine learning, trained and reviewed by attorneys, to help legal practitioners make data-driven decisions in state courts as well as… From Ethan Beberness   Sponsored ChatGPT Draws State Lawmakers’ Attention To AI ChatGPT and other AI models have drawn a great deal of public attention since being introduced last year—state lawmakers are taking notice too. From Korey Clark, Editor, State Net Capitol Journal™   Sponsored Why CRM Is An Essential Tech Tool For Law Firms In 2023 CRMs are powerful tools to help law firms grow and scale without needing more staff. Read on for a brief overview of the basic benefits… From Jan Hill - Lawmatics   Sponsored The Ultimate Guide To eDiscovery With Google Workspace And Google Vault An effective team must be well-equipped to handle the unique challenges these tools present. From Onna and Above The Law  

FTX and its Sullivan & Cromwell team have accused Bankman-Fried of presiding over a shocking lack of internal corporate controls and said their cooperation with the government was crucial to securing a quick indictment against Bankman-Fried and guilty pleas from other FTX executives.

The role of cooperators has been hotly debated by the criminal defense bar. As Mark Kasten of Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney noted, “I think criminal defense attorneys are going to look at how the court rules on this motion.”

googletag.cmd.push( function() { // Display ad. googletag.display( "div-id-for-bottom-300x250" ); });

Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1 or Mastodon @[email protected].

Sponsored Sponsored Exploring ESG through the Lens of Risk Management Join us on May 11th and learn how to frame ESG as risk management and the trends to watch. From Axiom and Above The Law   Sponsored The Ultimate Guide To eDiscovery With Google Workspace And Google Vault An effective team must be well-equipped to handle the unique challenges these tools present. From Onna and Above The Law   Topics

Biglaw, FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, Sullivan & Cromwell