Lawyers of FTX former CEO Sam Bankman-fried have urged a U.S. judge to grant their client access to former employees as part of his bail condition.
SBF lawyers were responding to a request by federal prosecutors that their client will not be allowed to discuss with employees at FTX or his hedge fund Alameda research, without lawyers present or the use of an encrypted messaging app, Signal.
Investors King understands that federal prosecutors of the Southern District of New York overseeing the current case against Sam Bankman-Fried, chose to impose a tighter bail condition on him after they disclosed that the former FTX CEO tried to influence witnesses by messaging the general counsel of FTX U.S, Miller via signal, a messaging app similar to WhatsApp.
These investigators further disclosed that the messages sent to the general counsel of FTX U.S., an individual who can be a potential witness in the ongoing criminal case against SBF, were suggestive of an effort to influence a witness’s potential testimony.
Prosecutors say, “SBF messaged the general counsel asking if they could recommend and if there is a way for them to have a constructive relationship with each other as resources”.
The message reads,
“I would really love to reconnect and see if there’s a way for us to have a constructive relationship, use each other resources when possible, or at least vet things with each other”, Bankman-Fried wrote to Miller.
The federal prosecutors further claim that Bankman-Fried directed Alameda and FTX through slack and signal, and ordered his employees set communications to auto-delete after 30 days or less.
This spurred federal investigators to urge the presiding judge to prevent SBF from communicating with former employees considering the nature of the investigation, citing efforts that may constitute “witness tampering”.
Meanwhile, Sam Bankman-fried has pleaded not guilty to eight charges in connection with the collapse of his multibillion-dollar crypto company FTX.
He was however granted bail on a $250 million bond which was secured by the equity in his family home and by the signatures of his parents and two other individuals with “considerable assets”.
