U.S. judge rejects new bail conditions for FTX founder Bankman-Fried
NEW YORK –
A federal choose on Tuesday rejected a proposal to switch Sam Bankman-Fried’s bail circumstances, regardless of an settlement between the FTX cryptocurrency trade founder and prosecutors to handle potential witness tampering issues.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan didn’t present causes for the denial, and stated a listening to on bail stays scheduled for Feb. 9.
A spokesman for Bankman-Fried declined to remark. The workplace of U.S. Attorney Damian Williams in Manhattan didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
Bankman-Fried, 30, has been free on US$250 million bond and residing along with his dad and mom in Palo Alto, Calif., since pleading not responsible to looting billions of {dollars} from the now-bankrupt FTX.
Prosecutors had requested final month to tighten bail, citing Bankman-Fried’s efforts to contact each the final counsel of the FTX U.S. affiliate and new FTX chief govt John Ray, ostensibly to offer help.
Their proposed circumstances would stop Bankman-Fried from speaking with most staff of FTX or his Alameda Research hedge fund with out legal professionals current, or utilizing encrypted messaging apps corresponding to Signal.
On Monday, Bankman-Fried’s lawyer Mark Cohen stated his consumer and prosecutors would permit communications with a selected set of staff, pending Kaplan’s approval.
That settlement would additionally ban Bankman-Fried from utilizing Signal, however let him talk by telephone, e mail, textual content message, Zoom and FaceTime, in addition to WhatsApp if he put in monitoring know-how.
Bankman-Fried would have additionally withdrawn his objection to a bail situation stopping him from accessing FTX, Alameda or cryptocurrency belongings.
His legal professionals had beforehand proposed a ban on contact solely with sure potential witnesses corresponding to former Alameda chief Caroline Ellison and former FTX know-how chief Zixiao “Gary” Wang, who’ve pleaded responsible to fraud and are co-operating with prosecutors.
Separately, prosecutors on Tuesday requested one other choose to placed on maintain Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission civil lawsuits towards Bankman-Fried till the legal case ended.
They cited the circumstances’ substantial overlap, and the danger Bankman-Fried might collect proof within the civil circumstances to assist his legal defence.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
