U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan has been assigned to preside over the fraud case against Sam Bankman-Fried.
Kaplan replaces Judge Ronnie Abrams, who recused herself from the case on Friday because of a potential conflict of interest since her husband is a partner at law firm Davis Polk and Waddell, which is advising parties possibly adverse to FTX and Bankman-Fried in the exchange’s bankruptcy proceeding, according to Abrams.
Bankman-Fried is currently under house arrest on a $250 million bond and is scheduled to appear before the federal court on Jan. 3.
Kaplan was appointed to the Manhattan federal court by President Bill Clinton in 1994 and has presided over a number of high-profile cases, including Chevron’s 2014 appeal of a significant environmental case in which he ruled in favor of the oil giant, and 2021 sexual assault charges brought against Prince Andrew by Virginia Giuffre, which was settled out of court.
In 2020, Kaplan criticized some plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit against blockchain firm Block.one for appearing to be an attempt to earn high legal fees. Block.one eventually agreed to pay $27.5 million to settle that case in a court-approved settlement.
Read more: The FTX Downfall: Full Coverage
