Overview
- U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff issued an oral ruling allowing prosecutors to obtain roughly 31 Claude-generated documents found on Beneficient CEO Bradley Heppner’s devices.
- The judge said attorney-client privilege does not apply because the chats were disclosed to a third-party service whose policy permits disclosure to authorities.
- He also agreed the materials are not protected work product since they were not prepared by attorneys or at counsel’s direction.
- Rakoff cautioned that using the AI outputs at trial could create a witness-advocate conflict for the defense firm, potentially risking a mistrial.
- Heppner faces federal securities and wire fraud charges tied to about $150 million; the ruling is preliminary and may be further briefed or appealed, with policy details such as any opt-in to model training still unclear.