NEW YORK, Jan 27 (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors asked a Manhattan judge on Friday to impose stricter bail conditions for Sam Bankman-Fried, raising concerns that the founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX could manipulate witnesses. or destroy evidence in your criminal case.
Citing Bankman-Fried's "recent attempts to contact potential witnesses," prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan to bar Bankman-Fried from contacting current or former employees of FTX or its Alameda Research hedge fund, which are not family members, unless an attorney is present. .
They also asked that Bankman-Fried not use Signal or other encrypted calling and messaging apps, though she was still able to communicate via text, email and phone.
Bankman-Fried, 30, is out on $250 million bail and has been required to live with her parents since pleading guilty. not guilty to looting billions of dollars from FTX, now bankrupt.
Bankman-Fried's lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In Friday's letter, prosecutors cited a January 15 Signal message from Bankman-Fried to "Witness-1," the general counsel for FTX's US affiliate. Bankman-Fried expressed interest in having a "constructive relationship" or "at least looking into things between them."
Prosecutors said this was "particularly troubling" because Bankman-Fried knew the general counsel had potentially damaging information, having been involved just before FTX's collapse in November in communications in which Bankman-Fried discussed the use of funds from Alameda to satisfy FTX customer withdrawals.
"The defendant's request to 'look into things between them' suggests an effort to influence Witness-1's potential testimony, and the appeal of a 'constructive relationship' also implies that Witness-1 should side with the defendant," prosecutors said.
"Even if the defendant has not directly attempted to manipulate witnesses, (their) contact with witnesses may intimidate them" into not coming forward or testifying, prosecutors added.
In trying to keep Bankman-Fried out of Signal, prosecutors said that in 2021 he ordered many Signal and Slack communications to be automatically deleted within 30 days.
Prosecutors said former Alameda principal Caroline Ellison, who pleaded guilty in the case and is cooperating with them, told them that Bankman-Fried had indicated it might be more difficult to build legal cases if the information was not preserved.
Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Edited by Cynthia Osterman
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