- Legal professionals for Sam Bankman-Fried accused prosecutors of “sandbagging” him over bail requests.
- The DOJ requested for the FTX founder to be barred from utilizing Sign and talking with former workers.
- The request was linked to SBF’s alleged communication with FTX US basic counsel Ryne Miller.
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has accused prosecutors of sandbagging him over a request to tighten the circumstances of his bail after accusing him of witness tampering.
Prosecutors wrote to judge Lewis Kaplan in a Manhattan Federal Court on Friday asking for 2 new circumstances to be added to Bankman-Fried’s bail: that he not communicate to workers or former workers of FTX or Alameda with out the presence of a lawyer, and that he could not use encrypted messaging apps for correspondence, notably Sign.
The requests have been linked to the Division of Justice’s allegation that Bankman-Fried’s communication with FTX US basic counsel Ryne Miller, a witness within the trial, constituted witness tampering.
“I’d actually like to reconnect and see if there is a method for us to have a constructive relationship, use one another as assets when doable, or a minimum of vet issues with one another,” Bankman-Fried is accused of claiming to Miller.
In a response filed to Judge Kaplan Saturday, legal professionals for Bankman-Fried stated the request adopted correspondence with prosecutors that prompt they have been contemplating the problem, that the Sign message in query despatched by Bankman-Fried hadn’t been deleted, and that it was concurrently despatched over e-mail to make sure transparency.
“However relatively than await any response from the protection, the Authorities sandbagged the method, submitting this letter at 6:00pm on Friday night,” legal professionals wrote.
“In an obvious effort to painting our shopper within the worst doable gentle, the Authorities’s letter makes it seem as if it have been prompted by exigent circumstances that required it to file on a Friday evening and search these new bail circumstances.”
Prosecutors highlighted former Alameda Analysis CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX Cofounder Gary Wang — who each plead responsible to fraud fees — as individuals Bankman-Fried be barred from contacting. They proposed he might proceed talking together with his father Joseph Bankman and his therapist George Lerner with out the presence of a lawyer.
Bankman-Fried was released on bail in late December set at $250 million, with the FTX founder pressured to remain at his dad and mom’ residence in California. He was charged with a number of counts of fraud over the collapse of the crypto change in November.
