Sam Bankman-Fried Stands by Legal Team Amidst Conflict of Interest Concerns

cryptonews.com:

Disgraced former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) on Wednesday confirmed plans to stick with his new lawyers Marc Mukasey and Torrey Young, who are also representing Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky, according to a report by Reuters.

In a hearing, U.S. Southern District Judge Lewis Kaplan asked Bankman-Fried about the potential conflict of interest. The former billionaire told Kaplan he’d consulted his current lawyers Mark Cohen and Christian Everdell, about the new appointments, alongside Alexandra Shapiro, the lawyer handling his appeal.

Cohen and Everdell will soon ask Kaplan for permission to withdraw from the case, according to Reuters, which cites Mukasey as a source.

The main potential conflict of interest for Mukasey and Young’s clients lies in the fact that Celsius owes Alameda Research $12.8 million, according to the bankrupt lender’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.

Alameda Research was the sister trading company/market maker of SBF’s FTX. Unlike in traditional finance, where different parties execute different functions in a trade, there was no separation between FTX and Alameda Research.

When Alameda lost money on some bad trades, SBF/FTX sent many millions in customer funds to Alameda in what’s now been recognized as crypto’s biggest-ever fraud.

First photo of Sam Bankman-Fried in jail at MDC Brooklyn. (December 17, 2023) pic.twitter.com/QlENjjmeQG

— Tiffany Fong (@TiffanyFong_) February 20, 2024

When Terra’s UST stablecoin collapsed in 2022 and spread contagion that was publicly bankrupting crypto lenders and trading firms across the space, SBF appeared like a white knight with his ostensibly endless wallet, bailouts left and right. One such beleaguered firm was Celsius, although the FTX bailout never came to fruition.

SBF