Judge To Preclude Sam Bankman-Fried’s Defense On Anthropic Investments?

In the latest development in the United States v. Samuel Bankman-Fried lawsuit, US DOJ prosecutors sent a letter to Judge Lewis A. Kaplan requesting to preclude the defendant from introducing evidence or argument about the current value of certain investments made by the defendant, especially $500 million investments in artificial intelligence company Anthropic.

DOJ Seeks To Block Sam Bankman-Fried’s Anthropic

In a court filing on October 8, US DOJ attorneys sent a letter to Judge Lewis A. Kaplan seeking to block Sam Bankman-Fried from mentioning the value of current investments in artificial intelligence firm Anthropic. The prosecutors allege that the $500 million investment made by SBF in 2022 was made using stolen funds from FTX customers.

“Evidence regarding the current value of the defendant’s investments could only be used to support the argument that FTX customers and/or other victims will ultimately be made whole, which the Court has recognized is an impermissible purpose.”

Prosecutors believe such evidence would therefore be wholly irrelevant, and present a substantial danger of unfair prejudice, confusing the issues, misleading the jury, undue delay, and waste of time. The Judge must preclude Sam Bankman-Fried’s defense team from making arguments or introducing evidence of investments in Anthropic.

According to research firm PitchBook, FTX and its sister company Alameda Research made a $500 million investment in Anthropic. FTX co-founder Bankman-Fried, former head of engineering Nishad Singh, and former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison were also investors in Anthropic.

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Anthropic Plans To Raise Funding At $30 Billion Valuation

Anthropic has announced plans to raise additional funding from companies such as Amazon and Google at a valuation between $20 billion and $30 billion. In the wake of this announcement, there has been some public reporting suggesting that this valuation would increase the value of the defendant’s investment in Anthropic.

This will increase the potential recovery for FTX customers and other creditors in the FTX bankruptcy. The court decision is still pending on Anthropic asset sales.

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