FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Appeals Towards Jailtime

Sam Bankman-Fried, the indicted founding father of the bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency alternate, on Tuesday, mentioned he by no means sought to intimidate witnesses at his scheduled October fraud trial, and there’s no cause to jail him.

In a letter to US District Choose Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan, Bankman-Fried mentioned prosecutors mischaracterised his intentions in giving a New York Occasions reporter the writings of former romantic associate Caroline Ellison, who is anticipated to testify in opposition to him.

“Mr. Bankman-Fried’s contact with the New York Occasions reporter was not an try to intimidate Ms. Ellison or taint the jury pool,” his lawyer, Mark Cohen, wrote within the letter. “It was a correct train of his rights to make truthful touch upon an article already in progress.”Bankman-Fried, 31, has pleaded not responsible to stealing billions of {dollars} in FTX buyer funds to plug losses at his hedge fund Alameda Analysis, the place Ellison was chief government.

He has been largely confined to his dad and mom’ Palo Alto, California house on a $250 million (roughly Rs. 2,100 crore) bond since his December 2022 arrest.

Ellison is certainly one of three former members of Bankman-Fried’s inside circle who pleaded responsible to fraud prices and agreed to cooperate with the US Legal professional’s workplace in Manhattan.

Kaplan barred Bankman-Fried from talking concerning the case and requested either side to submit written arguments about potential jail.

In an affidavit submitted by the defence, Laurence Tribe, a Harvard College constitutional legislation professor, mentioned Bankman-Fried had a proper to “keep away from projecting a false picture of somebody who’s media-shy or, worse, somebody whose consciousness of guilt makes him shun the media.”

Bankman-Fried’s legal professionals additionally argued that restricted web entry on the Metropolitan Detention Middle in Brooklyn, the place he could be held, would go away him unable to arrange for trial.

Prosecutors could reply to Bankman-Fried’s letter by Thursday. It’s not recognized when Kaplan will rule.

© Thomson Reuters 2023

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