Breaking: Judge Denies Cross-Examination Of Gary Wang And Caroline Ellison By SBF Lawyers

Sam Bankman-Fried’s defense team is continuously seeking requests to cross-examine former FTX CTO Gary Wang and Caroline Ellison, which is turned down by Judge. In the latest development, Judge Kaplan has denied the defense’s request to cross-examine Wang regarding FTX lawyers’ involvement in structuring loans by Alameda Research.

Judge Orders “Denying As Moot” To Cross-Examination of Gary Wang

In a court filing late October 10, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan denied the request of Sam Bankman-Fried’s attorneys to elicit on cross-examination of former FTX chief technology officer Gary Wang evidence regarding the involvement of counsel in structuring the loans issued by Alameda Research.

The order came after a filing by Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyers to cross-examine former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison on the same arguments. The defense anticipates prosecutors will seek to elicit from Caroline Ellison that she was directed by Sam Bankman-Fried to set aut0-deletion on certain of her Signal and Slack messaging accounts. However, SBF lawyers assert the involvement of Alameda or FTX lawyers shows good faith and lack of criminal intent.

“The Government has elicited and may continue to elicit testimony on the use of auto-deletion policies at Alameda and FTX, we respectfully request that the Court allow the defense to elicit the above-referenced evidence in its cross-examination of Ms. Ellison.”

Judge Kaplan believes the issue is no longer relevant and too much time has passed as he ordered “denying by moot” to cross-examination of Gary Wang. He is likely to deny the request by SBF’s lawyers to cross-examine Caroline Ellison for the same reason.

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Caroline Ellison Blamed Sam Bankman-Fried

Caroline Ellison has pleaded guilty and cooperates with the investigators. However, she noted that she did not commit these frauds at her own prerogative, as she was directed to do so by Sam Bankman-Fried. She also pointed out that SBF made decisions on both FTX and Alameda’s operations and had access to both companies’ accounts.

She further added that SBF knew about the risks at Alameda and still decided to use billions of dollars in customer funds toward risky investments.

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