According to Cointelegraph: U.S prosecutors have ruled out the correlation between Sam Bankman-Fried's $500 million investment in artificial intelligence start-up Anthropic and the potential recoup of customers’ assets in FTX. They petitioned the court to prohibit Fried's legal team from citing the potential reimbursements that might come through the high valuation of Anthropic.
Bankman-Fried, who had invested significantly in Anthropic in April 2022, is facing allegations that this investment was made through funds misappropriated from FTX customer deposits. The U.S government is scheduled to present evidence supporting these claims.
Fried's interest in Anthropic made the headlines when the start-up announced intentions to raise additional funds from big-name investors such as Amazon and Google, possibly leading to a valuation of between $20 to $30 billion. Prosecutors pointed out that the increasing value of Anthropic could boost the value of Fried’s investment, thus potentially facilitating recovery for FTX customers amid the company's bankruptcy.
Nevertheless, both legal teams have discussed issues that might surface during the cross-examination of witnesses. Fried's counsels plan to introduce evidence about the current value of his $500 million investment in Anthropic. Prosecutors, however, think this evidence aims to back the proposed argument of fully compensating FTX customers for their losses. They described this as an "impermissible purpose" that could result in "unfair prejudice, confusing the issues, misleading the jury, undue delay, and waste of time."
The focus of the indictment against Bankman-Fried remains on accusations of wire fraud and alleged misappropriation of FTX customer deposits for various investments. The prosecutors state that any discussions about investments that might have generated profit are irrelevant to the case.
The government maintains that its plan is to introduce evidence about Fry's alleged misappropriation actions that led to significant losses on FTX's balance sheet but it won't present any evidence about the victims' ultimate losses after FTX's bankruptcy process.
Ana Paula Pereira, a journalist at Cointelegraph, has been reporting on the trial, focusing on how some $8 billion of FTX customer funds disappeared following the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange. The first week of the trial focused on establishing how this misplacement happened.
