Sam Bankman-Fried Makes His Last Stand
Summary
Since last year’s trial, Mr. Bankman-Fried has hired Marc Mukasey, who once represented former President Donald J. Trump, to oversee his sentencing, as well as a separate lawyer at the law firm Shapiro Arato Bach to handle the appeal. His parents, the Stanford University law professors Joe Bankman and Barbara Fried, have also been involved in the defense, helping line up people to write letters for their son that will be included in the memo. In September, Mr. Lipson co-wrote a brief in the bankruptcy case arguing for the appointment of an independent examiner to review Sullivan & Cromwell’s actions, including its close collaboration with federal prosecutors. In their article, Mr. Lipson and Mr. Skeel argue that Sullivan & Cromwell “may have distorted the criminal justice process” by giving prosecutors wide-ranging access to FTX’s resources and data, according to an unpublished draft shared with The New York Times. In court filings, prosecutors have described the information sharing as “routine practices by companies cooperating in an investigation.” Mr. Bankman-Fried has been housed at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center since last summer and has spent much of his time working on the case, a person with knowledge of the matter said.