U.S. prosecutors have urged the court overseeing Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial to prevent his defense from raising arguments about the possible recovery of FTX customer funds invested in Anthropic.
Bankman-Fried directed $500 million into the AI startup, Anthropic, in April 2022. The U.S. government, however, intends to demonstrate that these funds were siphoned from FTX customer deposits.
Anthropic has recently been in the spotlight, aiming to secure new investment, with major companies like Amazon and Google showing interest.
This could boost the firm’s valuation to between $20-$30 billion.
Prosecutors stress that this surge in valuation could also amplify the worth of Bankman-Fried’s stake, which might facilitate the recovery of assets for those impacted by FTX’s bankruptcy.
A letter presented to Judge Lewis Kaplan reveals that the U.S. government and Bankman-Fried’s attorneys have debated issues likely to emerge during witness cross-examination.
The defense is prepping to introduce evidence about the present value of Bankman-Fried’s 2022 investment in Anthropic.
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Prosecutors argue that such evidence could be utilized to claim that FTX customers and other affected parties might be fully compensated.
This notion has been previously termed by the court as an “impermissible purpose”.
They further state, “Such evidence would… be wholly irrelevant, and present a substantial danger of unfair prejudice.”
The crux of the case against Bankman-Fried lies in accusations of wire fraud, involving the use of FTX customer deposits for various investments.
The prosecution holds that any successful investments Bankman-Fried made are ultimately inconsequential to the charges being examined.
While the government aims to present evidence of Bankman-Fried’s alleged misuse of customer funds leading to significant deficits for FTX, they do not plan to provide details on the final losses post the FTX bankruptcy completion.
The Bankman-Fried trial, reported by Cointelegraph’s Ana Paula Pereira from New York, commenced by exploring the disappearance of around $8 billion of FTX customer assets from the defunct crypto exchange.
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