Sam Bankman-Fried should be jailed until trial, prosecutor says, citing bail violations
A judge is weighing whether to revoke Sam Bankman-Fried’s bail
NEW YORK — A judge is weighing whether to revoke Sam Bankman-Fried 's bail after prosecutors said Wednesday that the FTX founder used the news media to harass a key witness against him and should be locked up until trial.
Judge Lewis A. Kaplan didn't immediately decide whether to put the cryptocurrency entrepreneur behind bars, instead giving defense lawyers and prosecutors several days to submit written arguments and more information.
“I am certainly very mindful of his First Amendment rights, and I am very mindful of the government's interest here, which I take very seriously,” Kaplan said. “And I say to the defendant, Mr. Bankman-Fried: You better take it seriously, too.”
Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to charges that he cheated investors and looted FTX customer deposits. The 31-year-old, who was seen as a crypto whiz before the exchange collapsed last year, has been free on $250 million bond since his December extradition from the Bahamas. He is required to remain at his parents’ home in Palo Alto, California, and his electronic communications have been severely limited.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon said Bankman-Fried should be jailed because he gave The New York Times some personal correspondence by Caroline Ellison. She was the CEO of Alameda Research, a cryptocurrency trading hedge fund that was an offshoot of FTX.
“Having contact with the press alone isn't witness-tampering” or grounds for revoking bail, Sassoon said. But, she said, by setting out to tarnish Ellison in an international publication read by many potential jurors in the New York-based case, Bankman-Fried “crossed a line toward inappropriately influencing jurors,
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