US prosecutors on Friday asked a Manhattan judge to impose stricter bail conditions on Sam Bankman-Fried, voicing concerns that the founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange could tamper with witnesses or destroy evidence in his criminal case. Can
Citing Bankman-Fried’s “recent efforts to contact potential witnesses,” prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan to ban Bankman-Fried from communicating with current or former employees of FTX or its Alameda Research hedge fund. asked for, unless a lawyer is present. ,
They also asked that Bankman-Fried not use Signal or other encrypted calling and messaging applications, although she could still communicate via text messages, email and phone.
Bankman-Fried, 30, has been free on $250 million bond and is required to live with his parents since pleading not guilty to laundering billions of dollars from now-bankrupt FTX.
Lawyers for Bankman-Fried did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In Friday’s letter, prosecutors cited a Jan. 15 signal message from Bankman-Fried to “Witness-1,” the FTX US affiliate’s general counsel. Bankman-Fried expressed interest in having a “creative relationship” or “at least checking things out with each other”.
Prosecutors said it was “especially concerning” because Bankman-Fried knew the general counsel had potentially damaging information, which had participated in communications just before FTX’s November collapse in which Bankman-Fried told FTX. There was discussion on using the Alameda Fund to satisfy client withdrawals.
“The respondent’s request to ‘check things with each other’ is indicative of an attempt to influence the possible testimony of WIT-1, and the appeal to ‘constructive relationship’ also implies that WIT-1 -1 should align with the defendant.”
Prosecutors said, “Even if the defendant has not directly attempted to tamper with witnesses, (his) contact with witnesses may intimidate them into not coming forward or testifying.”
Prosecutors sought to keep Bankman-Fried from Signal, saying she directed in 2021 that many Signal and Slack communications be automatically deleted within 30 days.
Prosecutors said former Alameda chief Caroline Ellison, who pleaded guilty in the case and is cooperating with them, told them that Bankman-Fried had indicated legal cases could be created if the information was not preserved. can be difficult to do.
The text of this story is published from a wire agency feed without any modification.
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