Lawyers
defending Sam Bankman-Fried have been granted permission to conduct “unlimited”
prison visits to the embattled Founder of bankrupt crypto exchange, FTX, who
was jailed earlier this month, according to a court order seen by CoinDesk. The
court authorization is to enable them to work with their client ahead of his
criminal trial scheduled to start on October 3.
The new
order follows last week’s criticism by Bankman-Fried’s legal counsel that
permitting them to meet the embattled crypto entrepreneur, who is currently
under detention at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn, is “entirely
inadequate”. In a letter to US District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan, the
lawyers also argued that allowing Bankman-Fried to meet his lawyers without a
dedicated computer violates his rights under the Sixth Amendment of the US
Constitution
In the new
order, the court granted the FTX Founder “frequent access” to a computer, with
certain “selected materials” only viewable using a hard drive. The court said
the limited permission would enable the former crypto billionaire to examine
discovery materials exchange in the case.
Lewis
Kaplan, the judge presiding over the case between the United States and Sam
Bankman-Fried, revoked the former FTX
CEO’s bail after
prosecutors successfully argued that Bank-man-Fried tried to tamper with
witnesses in the case at least twice. In particular, they claimed that Bank-man-Fried shared
personal details of Caroline Ellison with the New York Times, in order to initiate his
former ally and romantic partner who has pleaded guilty to
federal charges and is set to testify against him.
Furthermore,
prosecutors contended that the action violated the terms of his bail. The
crypto entrepreneur, who was arrested in the Bahamas last year and subsequently
extradited to the United States, had been previously released on a hefty
$250 million bond.
From
Bankruptcy to Strategy
Bankman-Fried’s
crypto empire collapsed in November 2022, following a liquidation crisis and
the revelation that the Founder used FTX’s customers’ assets to fund the
exchange’s trading arm, Alameda Research. Subsequently, the Founder was accused
of receiving over $2.2
billion in loans
and payments from the exchange and its affiliated entities, mainly Alameda
Research.
