FTX faces class action lawsuit, new judge

Judge Lewis A. Kaplan will be the judge presiding over FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s trial following his appointment Tuesday. Bankman-Fried denies accusations that he defrauded investors and looted customer accounts on FTX’s crypto currency exchange platform of $51 billion. The judge originally assigned to Bankman-Fried’s case recused herself since her husband worked for a law firm that had worked with FTX previously. Meanwhile, former FTX customers are filing a class-action lawsuit claiming the company misused their money after promising to keep it safe and asserting they should get reimbursement before the company’s former investors.

Who is Lewis A. Kaplan? The Manhattan judge has built a reputation for tolerating little nonsense in his courtroom, becoming annoyed with lawyers on both sides of the courtroom, and for issuing swift decisions. He has perched in a senior position in the Manhattan federal court for more than a decade. President Bill Clinton nominated him to the bench in 1994.

Dig Deeper: Read Steve West’s year-in-review report in Liberties cataloging the juxtaposition of court decisions in favor of religious liberty and a culture growing more opposed to it.