Sam Bankman-Fried isn’t getting his Adderall and is surviving on ‘bread and water,’ lawyers say
In this courtroom sketch, FTX cryptocurrency exchange founder Sam Bankman-Fried, wearing prison clothing, stands between his attorneys Mark Cohen and Christian Everdell in Manhattan federal court where he plead guilty to seven criminal charges in a new indictment during a hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn in New York City, Aug. 22, 2023.
Jane Rosenberg | Reuters
In a hearing in New York on Tuesday, lawyers for FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried expressed concerns over their client’s living conditions at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center, where he’s being housed for alleged witness tampering.
Bankman-Fried’s legal team told a federal judge that the former crypto billionaire was “subsisting on bread and water” and “sometimes peanut butter,” because the jail can’t accommodate his vegan diet. They said he had only been offered the standard “flesh meals.”
Mark Cohen, an attorney on the case, added that Bankman-Fried had not received any doses of his prescribed medication Adderall, a treatment for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, since being remanded to custody 11 days ago. Cohen said his client only had a “limited” and “dwindling” supply of Emsam, a transdermal patch for treating depression. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who is presiding over the criminal trial, had told a jail to provide these prescribed medications to Bankman-Fried.
The hearing on Tuesday marked Bankman-Fried’s first time in court since he was sent to MDC earlier this month. He is due to be held there until his criminal trial begins in October. Bankman-Fried, donning a beige, jail-issued uniform and ankle shackles, pleaded not guilty to seven charges, including fraud and conspiracy, in a new superseding indictment. He previously pleaded not guilty to more indictments related to the collapse of his crypto empire.
An earlier request from Bankman-Fried’s lawyers included a letter from his psychiatrist, George Lerner, who has been treating the former FTX CEO since February 2019.
“Mr. Bankman-Fried has a history of Major Depressive Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder,” Lerner wrote.
Without his medication, Lerner warned, “Bankman-Fried will experience a return of his depression and ADHD symptoms and will be severely negatively impacted in his ability to assist in his own defense.”
Magistrate Judge Sarah Netburn said she would look into these issues immediately and aim to have a solution by the end of the day.
Christian Everdell, another attorney on Bankman-Fried’s legal team, told Netburn there are “serious Sixth Amendment issues” involving Bankman-Fried not being able to prepare and participate in his defense with only six weeks until trial.
Bankman-Fried has thus far been unable to gain access to the internet and a laptop. His lawyers have argued that with their client in jail, he will not be able to properly prepare for his trial due to the mountainous amounts of discovery documents only accessible via a computer connected to the internet.
Judge Netburn said the defense would have to make trial preparation requests through Judge Kaplan.
On Monday, Judge Kaplan granted Bankman-Fried and his attorneys permission to work out of the courthouse at 500 Pearl Street in Manhattan, New York, immediately following Tuesday’s arraignment. Judge Netburn said she would address concerns over Bankman-Fried’s living conditions directly with the U.S. Justice Department’s Bureau of Prisons, which runs the jail.
Bankman-Fried had his bail revoked over his decision to leak private diary entries by his ex-girlfriend, Caroline Ellison, to The New York Times. In many of her personal writings, Ellison expressed self-doubt and feelings of stress in her role as the former head of Bankman-Fried’s failed crypto hedge fund, Alameda Research.
WATCH: Sam Bankman-Fried sent to jail over witness tampering
Elon Musk has claimed that the Democratic party organized recent protests at Tesla locations worldwide. As he usually does with his wild claims lately, he hasn’t offered any proof whatsoever.
Over the last few weeks, there have been growing protests at Tesla locations around the word.
It started small with just a few locations in the US, but it has since grown to now dozens of locations every weekend, with sometimes hundreds of people at some locations.
Protestors have different reasons for wanting to disrupt Tesla, but they are mostly centered around seeing the company as Elon Musk’s piggybank and they are upset at his involvement in the government through his financial contribution to Trump’s election and his role at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Musk took to X today to comment on the situation, and he made the claim that the protests at Tesla locations are funded by ActBlue:
An investigation has found 5 ActBlue-funded groups responsible for Tesla “protests”: Troublemakers, Disruption Project, Rise & Resist, Indivisible Project and Democratic Socialists of America. ActBlue funders include George Soros, Reid Hoffman, Herbert Sandler, Patricia Bauman, and Leah Hunt-Hendrix. ActBlue is currently under investigation for allowing foreign and illegal donations in criminal violation of campaign finance regulations. This week, 7 ActBlue senior officials resigned, including the associate general counsel.
ActBlue is a political action committee (PAC) used by the Democratic Party.
Musk did not elaborate on what “investigation” he was referring to nor did he provide any proof to back up his claim. In fact, he even asked for people to help provide information:
“If you know anything about this, please post in replies.”
Musk directly named Reid Hoffman, his former Paypal Mafia friend turned foe due to political differences, who was quick to deny any involvement:
Just one more of Elon’s false claims about me: I never funded anyone for Tesla protests. I don’t condone violence. But it’s clear Americans are angry at him – it’s easier to explain away their anger, than to accept that actions have consequences.
While the Democratic Party could be sympathetic to the Tesla protestors, there’s no evidence that they started the “Tesla Takedown” movement or have any significant involvement.
As we previously reported, it started as a grassroots movement with some posts on BlueSky, an X competitor, last month.
It has since gained considerable momentum, and they are now using Action Network, an open platform, to organize. As it grew, some groups have gotten involved to organize local protests, like The Disruption Project, which claims to stand “against the unjust systems of racial capitalism, the hetero-patriarchy, white supremacy and settler colonialism.”
In Seattle, The Troublemakers, a local environmentalist group, has also been helping organize.
The biggest blow to Musk’s claim is that there have also been protests outside the US, including in Canada and Europe. It’s unlikely that the US Democratic party would be involved in those.
There are currently six protests planned in Europe by the “Tesla Takedown” in the coming weeks:
Musk has also been involved in European politics, promoting far-right parties throughout Europe.
Along with the claims about the Tesla protests, Musk also retweeted someone linking several Cybertrucks burning down at a Tesla location in Seattle to “Democrat NGOs”:
Again, this claim is without evidence. In fact, the fires are still under investigation and it hasn’t yet been confirmed if it was arson.
Electrek’s Take
Could the Democratic Party be involved in some of the protests? It wouldn’t shock me, but you can claim that without proof.
I think most people involved in the protests are just mad at Elon for any of the hundreds of stupid things he has done or said in the last few months, including doing a couple of Nazi salutes at Trump’s inauguration.
He prefers to think that there’s some grand conspiracy against him because that’s easier to swallow than people hating home for being a compulsive liar, oligarch dork with the sense of humor of a maladjusted 13-year-old.
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Environment
U.S. could reach deal with Canada that avoids oil and gas tariffs, energy secretary says
HOUSTON — The U.S. could reach an agreement with Canada that avoids tariffs on imports of oil, gas and other energy resources, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Monday.
Wright said such a scenario is “certainly is possible” but “it’s too early to say” in response to a question from CNBC during a press conference at the CERAWeek by S&P Global. The U.S. is in “active dialogue” with Canada and Mexico, the energy secretary said.
President Donald Trump has paused until April 2 tariffs on Mexican and Canadian imports that are compliant with the agreement which governs trade in North America. Trump originally imposed broad 25% tariffs on goods from both countries as well as lesser 10% tariffs on energy imports from Canada.
It’s unclear, however, how much of the oil, gas and other energy that the U.S. imports from Canada is compliant with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Wright declined to provide specifics when CNBC asked how much of those imports are USMCA compliant.
“I’m going to avoid the details for now,” Wright said. The energy secretary said, “We can get to no tariffs or very low tariffs but it’s got to be reciprocal” in an interview with CNBC’s Brian Sullivan.
Canada’s energy minister, Jonathan Wilkinson, warned last week that energy prices will rise in the U.S. if the tariffs on energy imports go into full effect.
“We will see higher gasoline prices as a function of energy, higher electricity prices from hydroelectricity from Canada, higher home heating prices associated with natural gas that comes from Canada and higher automobile prices,” Wilkinson told CNBC’s Megan Cassella in an interview.
The U.S. has been the largest producer of crude oil and natural gas in the world for years. But many refiners in the U.S. are dependent on heavy crude imported from Canada. The U.S. imported 6.6 million barrels of crude oil per day on average in December, more than 60% of which came from Canada, according to the Energy Information Administration.
Wright acknowledged that the tariffs are creating uncertainty in energy markets as negotiations continue.
“We’re in the middle of negotiations for where things are going to go with tariffs, so that feels frightening and gripping right now but this time will pass,” Wright said. “Deals will be made, we’ll get certainty and we’ll have a positive economic environment for Americans going forward.”
U.S. crude oil fell more than 1% Monday to close at $66.03 per barrel, while global benchmark Brent closed at $69.28 per barrel. Crude oil futures have pulled back substantially as Trump’s trade policy creates uncertainty and OPEC+ has confirmed that it plans to gradually bring back 2.2 million barrels per day of production beginning next month.
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