FTX founder and onetime CEO Sam Bankman-Fried will stand trial in just under two weeks to defend himself against allegations he deliberately committed fraud and conspired to defraud crypto investors and customers in FTX and Alameda Research.
The estimated six-week trial itself is scheduled to kick off on Oct. 3, 2023, a mere 10 months after Bankman-Fried was first arrested and not even 11 months after FTX collapsed.
To better understand the trial process, CoinDesk spoke to several legal experts, some of whom asked for anonymity to discuss a high-profile case.
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Jury selection
Though the trial is scheduled to begin next month, there’s still some time before the actual arguments are made. The first step, which may occur as soon as next week, is a final pretrial conference where Southern District of New York Judge Lewis Kaplan will lay out what a final witness schedule may look like, how long the trial date may be and rule on any final outstanding motions. Judge Kaplan may also entertain a few motions after the jury is selected, said Martin Auerbach, an attorney at law firm Withersworldwide.
The second step is voir dire, which is what will actually begin on Oct. 3.
The jury selection process will see the judge ask potential jurors a number of questions. He will likely start broad, asking if any potential jurors have travel planned within the next few weeks or might otherwise be unable to disappear from their jobs for weeks, one of the legal experts – an attorney with experience in white collar litigation – told CoinDesk.
He will also likely ask if any of the potential jurors had an FTX account, and dismiss those individuals immediately, they said. Once these broad jury questions are completed, the judge will start asking individuals questions like those proposed by the prosecution and defense teams.
“What will take a long time is the defense and prosecution will likely fight over each juror,” they said. “It’s not going to be a yes [or] no, it’s going to be a back and forth, so I think it will take days.”
And while lawyers may be able to question potential jurors at the state…
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