Sam Bankman-Fried hires white-collar attorney who represented Ghislaine Maxwell

Sam Bankman-Fried is lawyering up (again) after his crypto exchange came crashing down. 

The former FTX CEO hired white-collar attorney Mark Cohen, a spokesperson for Bankman-Fried confirmed. The news was first reported by Reuters.

The disgraced ex-CEO parted ways with Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison in November and later reportedly brought on David Mills and Gregory Joseph.

Bankman-Fried’s latest move comes as regulators investigate the collapse of FTX, which filed for bankruptcy protection last month after a run on its native utility token, and Bankman-Fried stepped down as CEO. 

Cohen, who leads the white-collar criminal defense and regulation groups at the law firm Cohen and Gresser, represented Ghislaine Maxwell in her recent sex trafficking case. She was sentenced to 20 years in prison in June. Cohen also won an insider trading case against the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2014. The SEC is among the regulators investigating FTX.

Cohen’s law firm did not respond to a request for comment. 

Bankman-Fried didn’t say much about his new attorney during a Twitter Spaces interview on Tuesday. 

“I’m going on advice of counsel and people who are able to understand the situation and the context. I kind of can’t comment more than that on it,” Bankman-Fried said.

Updates with comment from Bankman-Fried.

© 2022 The Block Crypto, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.