- The former CEO is facing accusations of trying to influence ‘Witness-1.’
- US Attorney Damian Williams wants more restrictions against the disgraced mogul.
The lawyers representing Sam Bankman-Fried, the infamous FTX founder currently facing fraud charges for causing investors up to $10 billion in losses, want their client (SBF) to be allowed to access assets held by the bankrupt exchange, saying that there is no evidence he is responsible for conducting unauthorized transactions.
When SBF was awarded a $250 million bond in December, part of the bail terms prohibited accessing all the assets owned by FTX or affiliated Alameda Research. About three weeks later, US Attorney Damian Williams requested that the terms be modified to include a communication ban.
Alleged Witness Tampering By SBF
According to Williams, SBF is busy contacting the witnesses in the case to influence their testimonies, per a communication on messaging app Signal that was nabbed between him and Witness – 1, (identified as Ray Miller, also the FTX US’s counsel.)
In part, the message, which was also forwarded through email, read: ‘‘I would love to reconnect and see if there is a way for us to have a constructive relationship, use each other as resources when possible, or at least vet things with each other.’’ Williams also claims that there have been attempts by the former CEO to ‘vet things’ with the FTX employees and the current CEO, John Ray III.
Responding to the attorney, SBF’s lawyers wrote a letter to the presiding Judge, Lewis Kaplan, saying that, among other things, preventing their client from interacting with the former FTX employees was not practicable. Further, the counsel opposed the proposal that such interactions could only happen in the presence of a lawyer. According to the defence lawyers, the restrictions would prevent SBF from accessing the services of his therapist, a former FTX employee.
