{"id":73239,"date":"2023-01-30T12:42:49","date_gmt":"2023-01-30T10:42:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=73239"},"modified":"2025-09-09T13:04:55","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T10:04:55","slug":"us-authorities-seek-to-bar-sbf-from-communicating-with-witnesses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/us-authorities-seek-to-bar-sbf-from-communicating-with-witnesses\/","title":{"rendered":"US authorities seek to bar SBF from communicating with witnesses"},"content":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Department of Justice filed a request<\/a> to modify the bail agreement for former FTX chief Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). Prosecutors allege that he used the Signal messenger to send encrypted messages to a potential witness in the bankruptcy of the exchange<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The document describes attempts by the former top executive to contact the ‘current chief legal officer of FTX US’ Ryan Miller.<\/p>\n

\n

“I would like to restore contact and see if there is a way for us to build constructive relations, use each other where possible, or \u2026 verify facts with each other,”<\/em> Bankman-Fried wrote to him.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Similar attempts by SBF were made with other current and former FTX employees, according to the filing.<\/p>\n

According to prosecutors, the desire to ‘verify facts’ suggests an attempt to influence the testimony of potential witnesses.<\/p>\n

Representatives of the U.S. Department of Justice urged the judge to bar Bankman-Fried from contacting current or former FTX and Alameda Research employees, including via any encrypted messaging apps.<\/p>\n

The former exchange chief could bypass the restriction if an attorney participates in the negotiations or if he receives the appropriate government authorization, the filing says.<\/p>\n

Such a ban would prevent obstructing justice. Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison, in the cooperation with the investigation<\/a>, noted the possibility of SBF using messengers such as Signal and Slack with auto-delete features.<\/p>\n

\n

“Many court cases rely on documentation. It is much harder to build the case if information is not recorded or preserved,” Ellison explained to prosecutors, according to prosecutors.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Attorneys for the former head of FTX opposed<\/a> the U.S. DOJ’s motion, calling the proposed measures ‘overly broad’.<\/p>\n

\n

“The proposal [\u2026] is simply unworkable. For example, SBF without the participation of lawyers would not be able to talk to his therapist, who is a former FTX employee,<\/em> \u2014 the filing states.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The lawyers proposed excluding from Bankman-Fried’s contact circle current and former employees of FTX and Alameda, including Ellison, Gary Wang and Nishad Singh.<\/p>\n

Representatives for the former head of the exchange described his message to Miller as ‘a merely harmless attempt to offer help in the FTX bankruptcy process and not reflect wrongdoing’.<\/p>\n

The messages sent to the counsel did not include an auto-delete feature. SBF also duplicated them by e-mail. In other words, Bankman-Fried did not attempt to evade detection, the lawyers stressed.<\/p>\n

Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered<\/a> to provide ‘full copies’ of the messages allegedly exchanged between SBF and Miller.<\/p>\n

Earlier, former FTX US head Brett Harrison accused<\/a> Sam Bankman-Fried of ‘gaslighting and manipulation’ during their interactions in the development of the American unit.<\/p>\n

On December 12, 2022, Bahamian authorities arrested SBF<\/a> at the request of the U.S. government.<\/p>\n

As part of the investigation into the exchange’s collapse, the U.S. prosecutors filed<\/a> charges against him in eight counts. The former FTX chief did not plead guilty<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the end of 2022, Bankman-Frieddenied<\/a> involvement in moving assets from wallets linked to Alameda Research.<\/p>\n

Before that, DeFi analyst BowTiedIguana exposed<\/a> SBF for moving $684,000 in cryptocurrency and violating the terms of the bail in the amount of $250 million<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Earlier, FTX lawyers asked<\/a> the court to permit calling Bankman-Fried, his family and some former top executives of the company.<\/p>\n

Follow ForkLog’s Bitcoin news on our Telegram<\/a> \u2014 cryptocurrency news, prices and analysis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The U.S. Department of Justice has filed a request to modify the bail agreement for former FTX chief Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF). Prosecutors allege that he used the Signal messenger to send encrypted messages to a potential witness in the exchange’s bankruptcy case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":73240,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"","creation_source":"","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1162,1236,1403],"class_list":["post-73239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-court-cases","tag-ftx","tag-sam-bankman-fried"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"22","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"","is_update":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73239"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73239\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73241,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73239\/revisions\/73241"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/u1f987.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}