Joseph Bankman, the daddy of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, has reportedly employed an legal professional because the legal case towards his son strikes ahead.

In keeping with a Jan. 12 report from Reuters, Bankman retained Sean Hecker of New York-based regulation agency Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP. Bankman-Fried’s father reportedly suggested and assisted his son on issues associated to lobbying lawmakers in Washington, D.C. and should now be cooperating with the prosecutors behind SBF’s case.

It’s unclear on the time of publication whether or not Bankman has any legal or civil legal responsibility associated to the collapse of FTX and what info, if any, he could have offered to authorities. On Jan. 3, Bankman-Fried pleaded not responsible to all legal fees he’s going through associated to allegations of fraud at FTX. Former Alameda Analysis CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang have already pleaded responsible to related fees.

Collectively along with his spouse, Barbara Fried, Bankman helped safe his son’s bail in December with the fairness of their home. Bankman-Fried has largely remained confined in the identical Palo Alto property since, solely allowed to go away below sure circumstances together with attending authorized proceedings in New York. Each Bankman and Fried are professors at Stanford Regulation College.

FTX former lead engineer in talks with federal prosecutors in Bankman-Fried case

heh whoops that was unintentional, good catch–think there should not be a paying choice anymore…

— SBF (@SBF_FTX) January 12, 2023

In a uncommon public assertion since his arrest within the Bahamas, Bankman-Fried posted his model of occasions resulting in FTX’s insolvency in a “pre-mortem overview” on Jan. 12. The previous CEO largely denied the allegations towards him — saying“I didn’t steal funds, and I definitely didn’t stash billions away” — as an alternative putting a number of the blame on the crypto market crash and Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao.

Bankman-Fried’s legal trial is scheduled to start in October.