FTX news: The Department of Justice (DOJ) is requesting that all expert witnesses proposed by Sam Bankman-Fried will not be allowed to testify. In addition, the defense legal team is seeking to exclude one of the prosecution’s proposed witnesses.
Meanwhile, FTX customers are facing problems caused by a phishing e-mail after the SIM Swap attack.
See below for all the details.
FTX customers receive phishing emails after the SIM Swap attack: new challenges emerge for Sam Bankman-Fried
As anticipated, FTX exchange customers are still facing a number of problems, even though several months have passed since the exchange was shut down.
Specifically, these problems are preventing millions of users from accessing the billions in capital deposited on the disgraced exchange.
Recently, several former users were victims of a new phishing attack involving their emails registered on FTX.
This attack occurred only a week after Kroll, the agent in charge of bankruptcy procedures, was hit by a SIM exchange attack.
The latter attack caused the disclosure of customers’ personal data, such as account balances, phone numbers, and home addresses.
Customer data of other bankrupt crypto companies, such as Genesis and the BlockFi lending institution, were compromised in the same attack.
Fortunately, crypto account passwords and other sensitive data remained intact. However, customers were warned to watch out for possible scammers who might try to take advantage of the situation.
Those who gained access to this confidential information quickly exploited the situation, sending deceptive emails promising to return lost funds to creditors, provided they connect a cryptographic wallet to the account.
Phishing emails threaten crypto balances: details
The emails claim that withdrawals will be made in USDC, corresponding to the token balances held in the wallet at the time of platform closure. The phishing email indicates that withdrawals can be made to an external ERC20 wallet by clicking on a provided link.
It is important to note that connecting a wallet to such a phishing e-mail could result in the loss of one’s tokens, as it may require the disclosure of sensitive data, such as private keys, to enable the transfer.
It is worth recalling that the SIM swapping attack occurs when scammers trick the cell phone operator into activating a SIM card under their control.
Then, fraudsters target phone numbers and use the victim’s information to steal passwords, financial data, cryptocurrencies, and other valuable resources.
Disputes over validity of witnesses in FTX case: experts proposed by Sam Bankman-Fried challenged
The request made by prosecutors in a document last Monday is that all witnesses proposed by Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of FTX, be excluded from giving testimony.
According to the statement, there are several reasons for this request. First, the disclosure documents submitted by these witnesses have been deemed insufficient.
Also, there is concern that their experience may lead to misleading testimony, or that their planned statements may not be relevant to the case.
On the other hand, Bankman-Fried’s legal team seeks to exclude an expert proposed by the Department of Justice. The basis for this request is that the planned testimony may not be admissible under the rules of procedure.
The Daubert motions, filed Monday, highlight the opposing views of the two sides on the validity of certain witnesses who might be called during Bankman-Fried’s trial.
The Justice Department is seeking to reject seven expert witnesses proposed by Bankman-Fried’s team. Prosecutors argue that some of the statements provided by these witnesses are not detailed enough to fully understand their opinions.
Some of these statements are deemed inadequate as expert testimony, while others could be confusing to members of the jury.
As a reminder, the witnesses in question are Lawrence Akka, a British lawyer; Thomas Bishop and Joseph Pimbley, consultants to various companies; Brian Kim, an expert in data analysis and forensic medicine; Bradley Smith, a law professor at Capital University Law School; and Andrew Di Wu, an assistant professor at the University of Michigan.
Legal definitions and missing details in Bankman-Fried case
According to the Justice Department, Akka’s testimony should be excluded because it concerns the legal definition of “trust,” something that is up to the judge to define.
Moreover, this testimony appears to be limited to one example.
Neither Kim nor Bishop provided sufficient detail regarding the specific contents of their testimony beyond general arguments, which is not acceptable under the rules.
Smith’s testimony is deemed unnecessary since the Justice Department is not addressing allegations related to campaign finance, a topic on which the professor would have provided his opinions.
Smith’s testimony should also be excluded since, as in Akka’s case, he would be trying to explain legal concepts to the jury.
Finally, Pimbley’s proposed testimony as an expert on the FTX code was called “unnecessary” by the Justice Department.