The former billionaire’s camp is seeking to get 10 of the 13 fraud charges against him thrown out in the case charging him with stealing from customers of his since-defunct FTX cryptocurrency exchange.
“I congratulate you on extraordinarily imaginative arguments,” Manhattan federal Judge Lewis Kaplan said after Bankman-Fried lawyer Christian Everdell wrapped up his arguments during a hearing.
Kaplan seemed particularly skeptical of Everdell’s arguments that the feds failed to sufficiently prove conspiracy to commit bank fraud against his 31-year-old client, claiming that prosecutors didn’t argue that banks were harmed but rather customers were.
Source: Judge Lewis Kaplan blasts Sam Bankman-Fried’s bid to toss FTX fraud charges