FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried must stop contacting former employees, prosecutors say

Since the US Department of Justice charged Sam Bankman-Fried with eight criminal counts, including wire fraud and money laundering, in mid-December, the disgraced FTX founder damaged his relationship with prosecutors.

At Bankman-Fried’s arraignment in early January, Assistant US Attorney Danielle Sassoon accused the FTX founder to transfer assets to Alameda from a crypto wallet, successfully pleaded with the judge presiding over the case to restrict Bankman-Fried’s access to the company’s funds and imply that his word should not be relied upon , due to the amount of false information he has tweeted in the past. .

On Friday night, prosecutors filed new charges against Bankman-Fried in a writing Filed before Judge Lewis Kaplan, alleging that Bankman-Fried communicated directly with the current general counsel of FTX US, whom they called “Witness-1” and addressed to Ryne Miller, a possible witness in the trial of Bankman-Fried in October.

On January 15, prosecutors said, Bankman-Fried contacted Miller over the encrypted messaging platform Signal, as well as by email, and wrote, “I really want to reconnect and see if there is a way for those of us who have a constructive relationship, use each other as resources when possible, or at least vet each other’s things.”

Prosecutors added that Bankman-Fried contacted other current and former FTX employees, who showed what they described as a “history of using the application for obstructive purposes,” suggesting that Bankman-Fried was trying to to influence potential witness testimony.

Because of Bankman-Fried’s activity, prosecutors asked Judge Kaplan for two new bail conditions: that Bankman-Fried cannot contact current and former employees of FTX or Alameda, and that he is not allowed to use of any encrypted or ephemeral call or message. platforms, such as Signal. Bankman-Fried is currently allowed full access to the internet, ie supposedly one of the reasons he agreed to be extradited back to the United States from the Bahamas.

Prosecutors argued that the new conditions were necessary to “prevent obstruction of justice.”

In a writing In a filing with Judge Kaplan on Saturday morning, Bankman-Fried’s attorneys refused, writing that the government was “sandbagging” any efforts for the two teams to work together to reform the bail conditions.

According to Bankman-Fried’s lawyers, prosecutors told Bankman-Fried’s defense team on January 19 that they knew she had contacted John Ray, the new CEO of FTX, as well as Miller, who prosecutors deemed inappropriate. They told Bankman-Fried’s attorneys that they would seek an additional bail condition that would prevent Bankman-Fried from contacting potential witnesses without the presence of attorneys.

Bankman-Fried’s attorneys argued that their client was trying to publicly contact Ray to provide bankruptcy assistance and that he had the same charitable motives in contacting Miller, describing it as a “harmless attempt to offer help.”

However, they agreed to the proposed bail conditions to avoid litigation.

Now, however, her attorneys argue that prosecutors’ updated restrictions — which would include contacting all current or former employees, as well as limiting Bankman-Fried’s use of messaging platforms — beyond the initial proposed scope.

“The Government apparently believes that a one-sided presentation—designed to put our client in the worst possible light—is the best way to get the result it seeks,” Bankman-Fried’s attorneys said. wrote, arguing that by filing the letter at 6:00 pm on Friday, the defense team could not provide an answer to the negotiations.

Bankman-Fried’s lawyers proposed a different condition, which would prohibit Bankman-Fried from contacting certain key figures at FTX, including Caroline Ellison, Zixiao “Gary” Wang, Nishad Singh, and “Witness-1, ” or Ryne Miller, as well as “ others to be discussed by the government.” They also don’t want to limit her access to messaging platforms.

Finally, they asked Judge Kaplan to lift a bail condition imposed in January that barred Bankman-Fried from accessing the FTX and Alameda properties, arguing that prosecutors have not offered any evidence that Bankman -Fried is behind the transfers from late December.

Bankman-Fried’s attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment from luck.

The decision is now in the hands of Judge Kaplan.

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