Sam Bankman-Fried Hires Ghislaine Maxwell’s Lawyer

Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has hired Mark S. Cohen as his defense attorney, a former assistant United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York, who recently defended Ghislaine Maxwell in her sex trafficking trial.
 

His firm, Cohen & Gresser, also played a pivotal role in bringing down Mexican druglord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

Following Reuters reporting the news, Bankman-Fried confirmed the story in a Twitter spaces interview and added that he’s not sure how he’s going to pay for it.

“In terms of paying legal fees, I’m still working that out,” he said. “I’m not sure if I will be able to pay all the legal fees.”

Bankman-Fried and other FTX executives are under investigation following the disappearance of billions of dollars of client money, followed by the stunning collapse of the company.

Since the news broke last month about Bankman-Fried and FTX, a number of other details have been revealed, such as donations made to political candidates.

Bankman-Fried was the Democrat Party’s second-largest donor behind George Soros, and the company has been accused of laundering money for Democrats.

He also donated the maximum amount possible to the six Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump, as well as $1 million to a Sen. Mitch McConnell-backed super PAC.

He maintains that he didn’t try to commit fraud, and told The New York Times, “I’m deeply sorry about what happened,” believing himself to not be criminally responsible.

While Bankman-Fried and other executives haven’t been charged with any crimes, they also face a number of civil lawsuits from FTX customers who lost money.