Hip-hop superstar Sean “Diddy” Combs has added former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyer to his team to fight the federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges filed against him last month.
Court filings show that the disgraced musician and producer has hired Alexandra Shapiro, a co-founder of litigation boutique Shapiro Arato Bach, and New York trial lawyer Anthony “Tony” Ricco to his counsel list.
Shapiro has been representing Bankman-Fried since he was convicted on all counts last year for his role in defrauding investors. ReadWrite reported that Bankman-Fried was sentenced to 25 years in prison in March.
In the 102-page appeal, Shapiro called for a new trial, pointing to several rulings by New York District Judge Lewis Kaplan that limited the FTX founder’s ability to introduce evidence and hampered his defense. She wrote: “Sam Bankman-Fried was never presumed innocent.
“He was presumed guilty by the judge who presided over his trial.”
Diddy and Bankman-Fried housed in the same prison
Combs is reportedly living in the same unit of a Brooklyn jail as the crypto mogul, sleeping in a dormitory-style room with a group of other defendants assigned to the same section.
According to The New York Times, Bankman-Fried has been held at the Metropolitan Detention Center since last year, following the revocation of his bail after a judge determined he had violated his release conditions. Before his trial, his lawyers argued that his limited internet access hampered his ability to prepare for the case. They also claimed that Bankman-Fried, a vegan, was surviving on a diet of water, bread, and peanut butter.
He has shared the unit with other high-profile inmates, including a former president of Honduras and Mexico’s ex-secretary of public security.
On September 12, New York prosecutors charged Diddy with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking of minors through force, fraud, or coercion, and transportation for prostitution. The sex trafficking charge alone carries a possible life sentence, with minimum sentences ranging from 10 to 15 years depending on the victims’ ages. The racketeering conspiracy and transportation for prostitution charges carry maximum sentences of 20 and 25 years, respectively.
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