A judge has restricted Sam Bankman-Fried’s ability to access FTX and Alameda funds just days after reports of transactions from crypto wallets previously associated with him.

Disgraced crypto founder Sam Bankman-Fried has been barred from accessing or transferring funds from his former crypto exchange, FTX, and its sister trading firm, Alameda Research, a judge ordered at his arraignment. hearing today in Manhattan.

The decision comes days after blockchain researchers found that someone transferred funds from crypto wallets associated with his trading company, Alameda Research, which was previously associated with the founder.

Bankman-Fried tweet on December 30 that he is not behind the transfers, but Bloomberg reported on the same day that federal prosecutors were looking into the transactions.

At his arraignment hearing on January 3, Bankman-Fried besought not guilty on eight counts. Assistant US Attorney Danielle Sassoon requested that Bankman-Fried’s bail conditions be changed so that she cannot access or transfer funds belonging to her former companies, specifically in reference to reports of past transactions. week.

Sassoon acknowledged that the government does not yet have evidence that the transfers are tied to Bankman-Fried, but said the court should not “put full stock” in his denials, as he previously tweeted at wrong information.

He added that the government will no longer be able to access the funds transferred and that there is concern that the same will happen to additional assets, adding that Bankman-Fried previously worked with Bahamian regulators after the bankruptcy of FTX to transfer customer funds because he thought that foreign regulators would be more lenient than the US government.

Bankman-Fried appeared to exchange notes with one of her attorneys, Mark Cohen, who spoke on behalf of her client to deny the allegations. Cohen said Bankman-Fried’s legal team contacted the government to help identify the source of the transactions, but Bankman-Fried no longer had access to the wallets.

Cohen said Bankman-Fried’s legal team contacted prosecutors to work on language to change the bail conditions and asked Judge Lewis Kaplan for time to finalize the language. Kaplan refused, ruling that updated bail conditions were necessary.

Bankman-Fried’s trial is scheduled for Oct. 2.

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