Sam Bankman-Fried's lawyers propose their client have access to some colleagues, including his therapist, but not be allowed to talk with Caroline Ellison and Zixiao Wang, who pleaded guilty and are cooperating with prosecutors.
NEW YORK, USA – Lawyers for Sam Bankman-Fried on Saturday, January 28, urged a US judge not to ban the indicted FTX cryptocurrency executive from communicating with former colleagues as part of his bail, saying prosecutors “sandbagged” the process to put their client in the “worst possible light.”
Prosecutors said their request was in response to Bankman-Fried’s recent effort to contact a potential witness against him, the general counsel of an FTX affiliate, and was needed to prevent witness tampering and other obstruction of justice. “Rather than wait for any response from the defense, the government sandbagged the process, filing this letter at 6:00 p.m. on Friday evening,” Bankman-Fried’s lawyers wrote. “The government apparently believes that a one-sided presentation – spun to put our client in the worst possible light – is the best way to get the outcome it seeks.”