Attorneys representing the United States Justice Department rested their case against Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried after more than three weeks of expert witnesses and testimonies from former FTX and Alameda employees.
According to reports from the courtroom on Oct. 26, the U.S. government’s last witness before resting was FBI agent Mark Troiano, who primarily testified on SBF’s involvement in more than 300 groups with the messaging app Signal. Following Toiano’s testimony, Bankman-Fried’s lawyers motioned to dismiss, which was quickly denied by Judge Lewis Kaplan.
SBF’s attorneys, Mark Cohen and Christian Everdell, presented two witnesses before Bankman-Fried. Krystal Rolle, a Bahamas-based attorney previously representing the former FTX CEO, testified she accompanied SBF to a meeting with the Securities Commission of the Bahamas in November 2022 and witnessed him transferring FTX assets to authorities.
Joseph Pimbley from litigation consulting firm PF2 Securities, the defense’s second witness, testified he had been paid more than $50,000 to extract data from Amazon Web Services on Alameda Research’s line of credit with FTX and data on roughly 9 to 11 million users of the crypto exchange. Attorneys with the Justice Department questioned Pimbley on whether he had any knowledge of how FTX funds were used or the “allow negative” button — the feature giving Alameda the ability to trade more funds that the firm had available.
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Based on reporting from the courtroom, Judge Kaplan often pushed back on questions posed by Everdell or Cohen to witnesses, saying, “This is not helpful” and “Can we get to the point?” At the time of publication, Bankman-Fried had not yet testified, but his lawyers said they expected him to be on the stand for roughly four hours.
Defense attorneys told Kaplan in an Oct. 25 conference call that they planned to have Bankman-Fried testify as part of their case defending the former FTX CEO. Prosecutors previously called former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison, former FTX chief technology officer Gary Wang and former FTX engineering director Nishad Singh to testify on SBF directing efforts to have Alameda use FTX funds.
Bankman-Fried’s trial is expected to end within a few business days amid closing arguments and the judge considering any motions submitted by prosecutors or defense lawyers. However, the former FTX CEO is scheduled to face five more criminal counts in a second trial expected to begin in March 2024. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges in both cases.
Wes Streeting “crossed the line” by opposing assisted dying in public and the argument shouldn’t “come down to resources”, a Labour peer has said.
Speaking on Sky News’ Electoral Dysfunctionpodcast, Baroness Harriet Harman criticised the health secretary for revealing how he is going to vote on the matter when it comes before parliament later this month.
MPs are being given a free vote, meaning they can side with their conscience and not party lines, so the government is supposed to be staying neutral.
But Mr Streeting has made clear he will vote against legalising assisted dying, citing concerns end-of-life care is not good enough for people to make an informed choice, and that some could feel pressured into the decision to save the NHS money.
Baroness Harman said Mr Streeting has “crossed the line in two ways”.
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“He should not have said how he was going to vote, because that breaches neutrality and sends a signal,” she said.
“And secondly… he’s said the problem is that it will cost money to bring in an assisted dying measure, and therefore he will have to cut other services.
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“But paradoxically, he also said it would be a slippery slope because people will be forced to bring about their own death in order to save the NHS money. Well, it can’t be doing both things.
“It can’t be both costing the NHS money and saving the NHS money.”
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2:09
Review into assisted dying costs
Baroness Harman said the argument “should not come down to resources” as it is a “huge moral issue” affecting “only a tiny number of people”.
She added that people should not mistake Mr Streeting for being “a kind of proxy for Keir Starmer”.
“The government is genuinely neutral and all of those backbenchers, they can vote whichever way they want,” she added.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has previously expressed support for assisted dying, but it is not clear how he intends to vote on the issue or if he will make his decision public ahead of time.
The cabinet has varying views on the topic, with the likes of Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood siding with Mr Streeting in her opposition but Energy Secretary Ed Miliband being for it.
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The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill is being championed by Labour backbencher Kim Leadbeater, who wants to give people with six months left to live the choice to end their lives.
Under her proposals, two independent doctors must confirm a patient is eligible for assisted dying and a High Court judge must give their approval.
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Labour MP Kim Leadbeater discusses End of Life Bill
The bill will also include punishments of up to 14 years in prison for those who break the law, including coercing someone into ending their own life.
MPs will debate and vote on the legislation on 29 November, in what will be the first Commons vote on assisted dying since 2015, when the proposal was defeated.
Former CFTC Acting Chair Chris Giancarlo said he’s “already cleaned up earlier Gary Gensler mess,” shooting down speculation he’d replace the SEC Chair.