By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell book
SDNY COURTHOUSE, March 24 – Sam Bankman-Fried of FTX was indicted in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, leading to his arrest in the Bahamas on December 12, and extradition to the US on December 21.
On February 28, with Bankman-Fried free on bond, FTX's Nishad Singh pleaded guilty to six criminal charges. Inner City Press put the charging document on its DocumentCloud here.
On March 1, Bankman-Fried's lawyers and the SDNY prosecutors - together - proposed to Judge Kaplan two candidates as his technical expert: Edward Stroz ($695/hr) and Michael McGowan ($650/hr). We'll have more on this - for now, more on Substack here
On March 3, the US Attorney's Office which chose to give Bankman-Fried freedom on bond then declined to seek remand proposed to Judge Kaplan conditions: "The parties agree that the following websites would be whitelisted through the law firm VPN: the Relativity database hosted by defense counsel for purposes of reviewing discovery; Google Drive and Google Docs, which defense counsel uses with clients to share information; Gmail, which will be accessed through a single email address provided to the Court and the Government."Full letter on Patreon here.
On March 8, Bankman-Fried's lawyer went further on VPN use, saying the US has no objection, and adding that "We also understand from the Government that we have not yet received a substantial portion of the discovery, including, among other things, the search warrant returns from thirty (30) different Google accounts and the contents of at least four different electronic devices, including an iPhone belonging to Caroline Ellison, a laptop computer belonging to Zixiao “Gary” Wang, and laptop computers belonging to two other former FTX/Alameda employees." Full letter on Patreon here. Who are these other two?
On March 10, Judge Kaplan held his proceeding. Inner City Press was there and live tweeted, thread here:
More with analysis on Substack here
On March 17, after 8 pm, SBF's lawyer's sent in their proposal to Judge Kaplan, including "Mr. Bankman-Fried may use the Laptop only to query, review, and analyze the data in the AWS Database, and share those results with his counsel and others on the defense team. 4. For those purposes, the Laptop will be installed with the Microsoft 11 operating system and its associated programs and will be loaded only with the following additional applications and programs: a. AWS VPN client (to access the AWS Database); b. pgAdmin (PostgreSQL tool to query the AWS Database); c. Microsoft Office, including Microsoft Word, Excel, and Access (to create documents and analyze data); d. Adobe Acrobat Reader (to read documents in .pdf format); e. 7zip (to create zip files to transfer large files); f. Google Chrome (to send files to the defense team via Mr. Bankman-Fried’s Gmail account or via the Cohen & Gresser ShareFile site); and g. A remote access support tool (for remote support by Cohen & Gresser). 5. If requested, Cohen & Gresser will provide the Government with device-specific identifying information for the Laptop. Because the Laptop will be controlled by Cohen & Gresser and a Cohen & Gresser attorney or paralegal will be with Mr. Bankman-Fried while he uses the Laptop, the Laptop will not be loaded with monitoring software or software that restricts his access to the Internet." Full letter on Patreon here.
On March 24, the US wrote in: "The Government writes on behalf of the parties to provide an update concerning the proposed bail modification order. As described in defense counsel’s March 17, 2023, letter (see Dkt. No. 109), the parties have been working to reach agreement on a set of bail conditions and a proposed order. The parties now have an agreement in principle on proposed new bail conditions, but are continuing to finalize the terms of a proposed order. Accordingly, we believe we will be in a position to submit a proposed order for the Court’s consideration by the end of the day on Monday, March 27, 2023." Letter on Patreon here.
Bankman-Fried was released on $250 million bond - and reappeared on January 3, see below - with the requirement of co-signers.
But he wanted them secret: "LETTER MOTION addressed to Judge Lewis A. Kaplan from Mark S. Cohen dated January 3, 2023 re: Request to Redact Names and Identifying Information for Certain Bail Sureties." Six page letter on Patreon here -
Inner City Press nearly immediately opposed, here. That was Docket Number 31. And it ultimately prevailed, see below.
On February 23, SBF was hit with new charges in a superseding indictment: bank fraud and operating an unlicensed money transmitter “falsely represented to a financial institution that the [North Dimension] account would be used for trading and market making,” when in fact it was to be used to receive and transmit customer funds. SBF et al. “agreed to and did make corporate contributions to candidates and committees in the Southern District of New York that were reported in the name of another person." Inner City Press quickly published the superseder here.
On the evening of February 23, the US Attorney's Office wrote to Judge Kaplan about the two new charges, stating that "The Government respectfully suggests that the Court arraign the defendant on the S3 Indictment at the next court appearance that arises, or at the scheduled oral argument on May 18, 2023, whichever comes first. The Government requests that the Court exclude time under the Speedy Trial Act to October 2, 2023, the first day of trial." Letter on Patreon here.
At 2 pm on February 7, Bankman-Fried's lawyers filed notice of their appeal to the Second Circuit, to (try to) keep the names secret.
But on February 15, Judge Kramer ordered unsealing: "ORDER as to Samuel Bankman-Fried, Zixiao (Gary) Wang, Caroline Ellison. On January 30, 2023, the Court issued an order granting the motions of several news organizations to unseal the names of defendant's non-parental bail sureties. (Dkt 57) Given the novelty of the question presented and the likelihood of appeal, the Court stayed the order "until 5 p.m. on February 7, 2023 and, if a notice of appeal from th[at] order [was] filed by then, until February 14, 2023 at 5 p.m. in order to permit an application for a further stay to be made to the Court of Appeals should any adversely affected party wish to file one." (Dkt 57, at 12.) On February 7, 2023, Defendant timely filed a notice of appeal from the January 30, 2023 Order. As of today, however, no application for a further stay has been made to the Court of Appeals. Accordingly, the Clerk shall file on the unrestricted public record complete copies of the redacted bonds previously docketed as Dkt 55 and 56. SO ORDERED. (Signed by Judge Lewis A. Kaplan on 2/15/2023)."
Inner City Press published that - and then the two names: Larry Kramer, former dean of Stanford Law, and Andreas Paepcke of Stanford InfoLab, photos here and here. Watch this site.
The case is US v. Bankman-Fried, et al., 22-cr-673 (Kaplan)
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