Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried Raises Objection to Tighter Bail
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Lawyers representing Sam Bankman-Fried urged a U.S. judge on Saturday not to ban the indicted FTX cryptocurrency executive from communicating with former colleagues as part of his bail, saying prosecutors "sandbagged" the process to portray their client in the worst possible light. The lawyers were responding to a request by federal prosecutors that Bankman-Fried not be allowed to talk with most employees of FTX or his Alameda Research hedge fund without lawyers present, or use the encrypted messaging apps Signal or Slack and potentially delete messages automatically.
Bankman-Fried, 30, has been free on a $250 million bond since pleading not guilty to charges of fraud in the looting of billions of dollars from the now-bankrupt FTX.
Sam Bankman-Fried's Lawyers Accuse Prosecutors of Concealing Bail Talks
Prosecutors said their request was in response to Bankman-Fried's recent effort to contact a potential witness against him, the general counsel of an FTX affiliate, and was needed to prevent witness tampering and other obstruction of justice. But in a letter to U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan, lawyers representing Sam Bankman-Fried said that prosecutors sprung the overbroad bail conditions without revealing that both sides had been discussing bail over the last week.
Bankman-Fried's lawyers also said their client's efforts to contact the general counsel and John Ray, installed as FTX's chief executive during the bankruptcy, were attempts to offer assistance and not to interfere.
Request to Grant SBF Access to Some Employees
Bankman-Fried's lawyers proposed that their client have access to some colleagues, including his therapist, but not be allowed to talk with Caroline Ellison and Zixiao "Gary" Wang, who have pleaded guilty and are cooperating with prosecutors. They said a Signal ban isn't necessary because Bankman-Fried is not using the auto-delete feature, and any concerns that he might use it are "unfounded."
The lawyers also asked to remove a bail condition preventing Bankman-Fried from accessing FTX, Alameda, or cryptocurrency assets, saying there was no proof that he was responsible for earlier alleged unauthorized transactions.
In an order on Saturday, Kaplan gave prosecutors until Monday to address Bankman-Fried's concerns.