Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – There are ways for Sam Bankman-Fried to ease the sanctions imposed on him. The founder of crypto service FTX reportedly gave 7 experts “facilitating money” to testify at the next trial.
He is willing to pay US$ 1,200 (Rp. 18 million) per hour for experts. This is a kind of ‘seduction’ so that they issue testimonials that don’t corner the crypto dealer.
One of them is Bradley Smith, a law professor at Capital University Law School and a former commissioner on the Federal Election Commission. In a court filing, Smith said he was compensated $1,200 per hour.
In addition, digital asset expert Lawrence Akka is also paid US$ 1,009 per hour, according to documents seen Insidersquoted Thursday (31/8/2023).
The other four professional witnesses are paid in the range of US$400-720 per hour. One other witness did not reveal specifically how much money he received for wanting to be a Bankman-Fried witness.
Despite being paid, the witnesses said they would issue honest testimony. The payment, he said, did not affect their opinion of the Bankman-Fried embezzlement case.
Previously, Bankman-Fried admitted that he only had US$ 100,000 (Rp 1.5 billion) in the bank after his crypto service was declared bankrupt. He was also eliminated from the ranks of technology billionaires.
Bankman-Fried will run his next trial in early October. He is facing 7 charges, including online fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He didn’t plead guilty.
In the suit, Smith said he would testify against the US Campaign Finance Act by providing historical background and purpose of the law.
US authorities accuse Bankman-Fried of illegally running an FTX embezzlement scheme to chip away millions of US dollars to politicians.
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