By Mrinmay Dey
(Reuters) – Legal professionals for FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried have rejected prosecutors’ claims that his discussions with a New York Occasions reporter amounted to witness tampering, however have agreed to just accept a gag order, they stated in a letter to the decide within the prison fraud case.
The letter, launched on Sunday, got here after prosecutors sought to bar Bankman-Fried and his allies from making public statements that might intervene with the case.
Cryptocurrency change FTX, as soon as valued at $32 billion, filed for chapter in November as a result of it was unable to reimburse depositors. Bankman-Fried pleaded not responsible to fraud.
Within the letter, Bankman-Fried’s lawyer confirmed that he had spoken to and offered private paperwork to The New York Occasions, together with paperwork authored by a former colleague, Caroline Ellison, who cooperated with the US authorities.
“Bankman-Fried didn’t violate the order of safety on this case, or his bail situations, or any regulation or rule governing his conduct,” Bankman-Fried’s lawyer Mark Cohen stated within the letter.
A New York Occasions article titled “Contained in the Personal Writings of Caroline Ellison, Star Witness within the FTX Case” reported excerpts from Ellison’s private paperwork on Google (NASDAQ:) from earlier than FTX’s collapse during which she spoke of being “moderately sad and overwhelmed” along with her job and feeling “damage/rejected” by her breakup with Bankman-Fried.
Ellison ran Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Analysis hedge fund and pleaded responsible to defrauding traders and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. In December, Bankman-Fried stated he and Ellison had been in a relationship, however gave no additional particulars.
