Current:Home > InvestSam Bankman-Fried should be jailed until trial, prosecutor says, citing bail violations-InfoLens
Sam Bankman-Fried should be jailed until trial, prosecutor says, citing bail violations
View Date:2024-12-23 11:26:42
NEW YORK (AP) — Sam Bankman-Fried should be immediately jailed, a prosecutor told a federal judge on Wednesday, saying the FTX founder violated his bail conditions by sharing information with a reporter designed to harass a key witness against him.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon said the government had concluded there were no set of bail conditions that would ensure that Bankman-Fried wouldn’t try to tamper with or influence witnesses.
She said Bankman-Fried should be jailed because he shared personal writings about Caroline Ellison, who was the CEO of Alameda Research, a cryptocurrency hedge fund trading firm that was an offshoot of FTX.
Bankman-Fried is scheduled for trial Oct. 2 in Manhattan on charges that he cheated investors and looted FTX customer deposits. Bankman-Fried has been free on $250 million since his December extradition from the Bahamas, required to remain at his parent’s home in Palo Alto, California. His electronic communications have been severely limited.
Bankman-Fried, 31, has pleaded not guilty to the charges. His lawyer, Mark Cohen, told Judge Lewis A. Kaplan that prosecutors only notified him a minute before the hearing started that they planned to ask for his client’s incarceration.
Cohen asked the judge to let him submit written arguments first if he was inclined to grant the prosecutor’s request. He said his client should not be punished for trying to protect his reputation in the best way he can.
FTX entered bankruptcy in November when the global exchange ran out of money after the equivalent of a bank run.
Ellison pleaded guilty in December to criminal charges that carry a potential penalty of 110 years in prison. She has agreed to testify against Bankman-Fried as part of a deal that could result in leniency.
The prosecutor’s request comes after the government said last week that Bankman-Fried gave some of Ellison’s personal correspondence to The New York Times. This had the effect of harassing her, prosecutors said, and seemed designed to deter other potential trial witnesses from testifying.
Earlier this year, Kaplan had suggested that jailing Bankman-Fried was possible after prosecutors complained that he found ways to get around limits placed on his electronic communications as part of a $250 million personal recognizance bond issued after his December arrest that requires him to live with his parents in Palo Alto, California.
In February, prosecutors said he might have tried to influence a witness when he sent an encrypted message in January over a texting app to a top FTX lawyer, saying he “would really love to reconnect and see if there’s a way for us to have a constructive relationship, use each other as resources when possible, or at least vet things with each other.”
At a February hearing, the judge said prosecutors described things Bankman-Fried had done after his arrest “that suggests to me that maybe he has committed or attempted to commit a federal felony while on release.”
veryGood! (6)
Related
- RHOBH's Kyle Richards Addresses PK Kemsley Cheating Rumors in the Best Way Possible
- Britney Spears Breaks Silence on Alleged Incident With Rumored Boyfriend Paul Soliz
- Dentist accused of killing wife tried to plant letters suggesting she was suicidal, police say
- Travis Kelce says he told post office to stop delivering mail to his house
- Wheel of Fortune Contestant Goes Viral Over His Hilariously Wrong Answer
- The Truth About Selling the OC's Alex Hall and Tyler Stanaland's Relationship Status
- King Charles’ longtime charity celebrates new name and U.S. expansion at New York gala
- Nearly 2,200 people have been arrested during pro-Palestinian protests on US college campuses
- Glen Powell responds to rumor that he could replace Tom Cruise in 'Mission: Impossible'
- 16 Life-Changing Products From Amazon You Never Knew You Needed
Ranking
- In bizarro world, Tennessee plays better defense, and Georgia's Kirby Smart comes unglued
- The Daily Money: A month in a self-driving Tesla
- 'SNL' announces season's final guests, including Sabrina Carpenter and Jake Gyllenhaal
- A $5,000 check won by Billie Jean King 50 years ago helped create Women’s Sports Foundation
- Homes of Chiefs’ quarterback Mahomes and tight end Kelce were broken into last month
- Biden to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to 19 politicians, activists, athletes and more
- A North Carolina man is charged with mailing an antisemitic threat to a Georgia rabbi
- Yellen says threats to democracy risk US economic growth, an indirect jab at Trump
Recommendation
-
Chris Evans Shares Thoughts on Starting a Family With Wife Alba Baptista
-
A tornado hit an Oklahoma newsroom built in the 1920s. The damage isn’t stopping the presses
-
Brittney Griner 'Coming Home' interview shows not just her ordeal in Russia, but her humanity
-
Gangs in Haiti launch fresh attacks, days after a new prime minister is announced
-
Michael Grimm, former House member convicted of tax fraud, is paralyzed in fall from horse
-
Biden Administration Awards Wyoming $30 Million From New ‘Solar for All’ Grant
-
Majority of Americans over 50 worry they won't have enough money for retirement: Study
-
How the Dance Mom Cast Feels About Nia Sioux, Kenzie and Maddie Ziegler Skipping the Reunion