Sam Bankman-Fried, in his first appearance in court after being found guilty of defrauding billions of dollars from FTX customers, said his trial attorneys would no longer represent him as he heads towards sentencing.
Instead, his newly hired lawyer, Marc Mukasey, will represent him over the next month. Bankman-Fried, who was found guilty on seven different counts of fraud and conspiracy last November, will be sentenced in late March.
Mukasey also represents bankrupt crypto lender Celsius founder Alex Mashinsky, who is accused by the Department of Justice of securities fraud, commodities fraud and conspiracy to manipulate the price of the company’s token CEL, among others. Mashinsky is set to go on trial this fall.
In a hearing in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Wednesday, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, who oversaw Bankman-Fried’s criminal trial in October, asked the former crypto billionaire a series of questions about potential conflicts and other issues arising from sharing lawyers with Mashinsky.
The conflict of interest comes from the fact that Celsius had worked with FTX and Alameda Research, before both companies went bankrupt.
Bankman-Fried was already represented by his new lawyer, and informed Judge Kaplan that he was no longer using Mark Cohen and Christian Everdale’s services after Kaplan asked if they were “out of this now” at the start of the hearing.
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Mashinsky also said he had no problems with his attorneys representing Bankman-Fried during a hearing on Tuesday.
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