SBF pays expert witnesses roughly $1,000 an hour, court documents show

Odaily Planet Daily News Court documents show that if expert witnesses testify for them, SBF needs to pay them more than $1,000 an hour. The SBF is likely to call seven expert witnesses in the fraud trial, currently scheduled for Oct. 2, with the proposed list including Lawrence Akka, Thomas Bishop, Brian Kim, Joseph Pimbley, Bradley Smith, Peter Vinella and Andrew Di Wu. Some witnesses, such as former Federal Election Commission Chairman Bradley Smith, will charge the SBF legal team $1,200 an hour to testify on issues such as U.S. campaign finance law and donations, according to court documents filed Aug. 28. (Cointelegraph) According to previous news, a U.S. Department of Justice prosecutor stated in a document that all expert witnesses recommended by SBF should be barred from testifying because their disclosure documents are insufficient and relevant experience may be misleading. The Ministry of Justice proposed to exclude the seven expert witnesses recommended by the SBF team. The specific reasons included that the witnesses’ opinions exceeded their authority, insufficient details, and invalid opinions. "Its statement of fact should be supported by admissible documentary evidence and the testimony of professional witnesses, rather than using expert witnesses who have no first-hand knowledge of the facts," the document said.