Judge rejects SBF lawyer's request to cross-examine Gary Wang

Odaily Planet Daily News In a court document filed on October 10, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan rejected SBF’s lawyer’s request that FTX co-founder Gary Wang agree to a series of loans related to the hedge fund Alameda Research. Cross-examination as to whether legal advice was relied upon. Prior to this, SBF lawyers submitted a cross-examination request to former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison on the same argument. The defense expects prosecutors will try to obtain evidence from Ellison that she set up automatic deletions of some of her Signal and Slack messaging accounts at the direction of SBF. However, SBF lawyers insisted that the involvement of Alameda or FTX lawyers showed good faith and no criminal intent. SBF lawyers said: "The government has and may continue to collect evidence on the issue of Alameda and FTX's use of automatic deletion policies, and we implore the court to allow the defense to present this evidence in the cross-examination of Ms. Ellison." Judge Kaplan held that the issue was irrelevant and that too much time had passed and refused to cross-examine Gary Wang. For the same reason, he is likely to refuse a request from SBF lawyers to cross-examine Caroline Ellison. (CoinGape) It was previously reported that in SBF’s trial, its defense team plans to question Caroline Ellison to explore her reliance on legal advisors during her tenure as CEO of Alameda Research and FTX’s valuation of Anthropic AI’s equity. In addition, lawyers want to ask whether Gary Wang relied on legal advice when agreeing to a series of loans to affiliated hedge fund Alameda Research. The SBF argued the lawyer's involvement showed he was unaware the company's loans were improper and asked Judge Lewis Kaplan for permission to question Wang on the issue.