Blockchain and crypto fraud attorney Eugene Gorokhov recently provided analysis for a Law360 article titled “What Crypto Attys Will Be Watching During The SBF Trial.” The criminal trial of Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the founder of FTX, on seven charges of wire fraud and conspiracy, has started in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Bankman-Fried stands accused of perpetrating fraud by diverting billions of dollars in shareholder funds from the cryptocurrency exchange company, FTX, to his privately held cryptocurrency hedge fund for personal gain. In response, the defense team is expected to present a more intricate narrative, highlighting the challenges of navigating an uncharted and largely unregulated market.

Gorokhov, who represents a client in a cryptocurrency laundering case involving the single largest asset seizure in US history, said that some of the major questions will be: “Given that this is uncharted territory, a new industry, what’s fair game in terms of what’s admissible for how this industry works? What are the responsible expectations of investors? What are the reasonable expectations of lenders?”

Gorokhov added that “Even though this happens to be one of the first major crypto trials, it’s very much built along the same principles that fraud cases have been built on going back to time immemorial.” Still, as discussed in the article, there are a number of interesting legal issues, and this landmark case will be followed closely by practitioners and scholars who are keen to observe whether it establishes fresh legal precedents and what it will mean for future trials in this space.

Read the entire article by Phillip Bantz, Law360. (Article PDF)