Sam Bankman-Fried plans to lean on ‘counsel advice’ defense in criminal trial

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried intends to blame “counsel advice” provided by the company’s internal legal team and Fenwick & West, a prominent Silicon Valley law firm, in his case against the U.S. government.

In an Aug. 23 letter to Judge Lewis Kaplan, Bankman-Fried’s lawyers wrote that their client received legal advice from Fenwick in making some of his decisions, including using auto-delete features and ephemeral messaging applications like Signal. The lawyers also pointed out that the law firm provided legal advice on other issues, including the loans given to FTX and Alameda executives and intercompany payments between FTX and Alameda.