Bankman-Fried’s lawyers want to block potential trial testimonies

Some witness testimonies should be blocked, SBF lawyers argued in a Monday letter to Judge Kaplan

article-image

Artwork by Crystal Le

share

As former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried faces trial in New York this week, his lawyers continue to clash with the US government. 

In a letter sent to Judge Lewis Kaplan, who will oversee the trial, Bankman-Fried’s attorneys are pushing to toss a motion from the US government. 

Bankman-Fried’s trial begins with jury selection on Wednesday and is expected to last roughly six weeks.

Read more: Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial starts Oct. 3: What you need to know

According to the letter filed by the government, prosecutors are both seeking and seeking to use testimonies from FTX customers on how they believed their assets were being used, investor testimonies focused on FTX as a custodian, and “alleged coconspirator witnesses regarding their interpretation of statements made by” SBF.

Lawyers for Bankman-Fried argued that the government is seeking the motion prematurely and the testimonies are focused on the opinions and interpretations of the FTX customers. 

Bankman-Fried’s team was dealt a loss ahead of the trial when Judge Kaplan ruled in favor of the government’s motion to block a handful of expert witness testimonies. On the same grounds, Bankman-Fried’s team argues, the government should not be able to use investor testimony.

“The Second Circuit held that excluding defense expert testimony that would counter the government’s arguments as to what a reasonable investor would have found material would leave the defendant “only with the ‘victims’ of his conduct as sources of potential testimony on this issue, an odd limitation where the jury is to evaluate materiality in an objective manner,” lawyers wrote Monday.

Finally, in regards to the alleged co-conspirators, the lawyers claim that the request for testimony is both premature and vague “because none of the requisite evidentiary and factual foundations exist and it is unclear whether they ever will be.”

However, if Kaplan rules in favor of the government then the defense argues that it should, at the very least, be allowed to cross-examine the witnesses.

Blockworks reporters Casey Wagner and James Cirrone are covering Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial from the courtroom in New York. Follow for instant trial updates on their X accounts.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Unlocked by Template (10).png

Research

Innovations on Aptos’ technical design through Raptr, Shardines, and Zaptos approach near-optimal latency and throughput by unlocking 100% utilization of network resources, with the capacity to settle 260k transactions per second with latencies less than 800ms. The original Move language was revamped with the launch of Move 2, supporting more expressivity in smart contract logic and a scalable ability to interact with high volume datasets. The ecosystem has benefitted from strong asset inflows, now hosting over $1.3B in stablecoins, $450M in bridged BTC, and $530M in RWAs. Activity in the Aptos ecosystem has grown notably over the past year, with monthly application revenue reaching ~$835k and monthly DEX volumes growing to over $5B, both at new all time highs.

article-image

Asset allocator says fee compression could be a challenge as Grayscale converts more crypto funds to ETFs

article-image

The Stripe-acquired firm has big plans for a streamlined, multi-wallet future

article-image

Both founders of the former crypto lender have now landed in new crypto industry roles

article-image

Bitcoin’s recent peak is a victory lap for curvers left and right

article-image

Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo says institutions are eager to get exposure to tokenization