FTX's Bankman-Fried appeals jailing as trial nears

By Luc Cohen

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Sam Bankman-Fried has appealed a choice to jail him for alleged witness tampering forward of his Oct. 3 trial over the collapse of his FTX cryptocurrency trade.

In a submitting late on Friday night time with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court docket of Appeals, Bankman-Fried’s attorneys mentioned the 31-year-old former billionaire merely exercised his First Modification rights by sharing writings by his former colleague and romantic accomplice Caroline Ellison with a New York Occasions reporter.

Ellison is one among three former members of Bankman-Fried’s inside circle anticipated to testify towards him after pleading responsible to fraud. Bankman-Fried’s attorneys mentioned he shared her writings to defend his fame, to not intimidate her.

“It’s unclear how a cooperating witness who has promised to testify towards a defendant might be meaningfully threatened by nothing however their very own statements being printed by a good newspaper,” Bankman-Fried’s attorneys wrote.

In her writings, which predated FTX’s November 2022 collapse, Ellison described feeling “sad and overwhelmed” together with her job and “damage/rejected” from her breakup with Bankman-Fried.

Prosecutors mentioned Bankman-Fried launched these writings to harass Ellison and to dissuade others from testifying in the event that they thought he would make them look unhealthy within the press.

U.S. District Decide Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan revoked Bankman-Fried’s bail on Aug. 11, discovering possible trigger to help a witness tampering cost.

Prosecutors have accused Bankman-Fried of stealing billions of {dollars} in FTX buyer funds to plug losses at Alameda Analysis, a crypto-focused hedge fund he additionally owned and the place Ellison was chief government.

He has pleaded not responsible.

Of their attraction, Bankman-Fried’s attorneys additionally mentioned their consumer’s lack of laptop entry at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Heart has prevented him from with the ability to analyze the federal government’s proof and put together correctly for trial.

Although Bankman-Fried has been allowed to satisfy together with his attorneys twice per week, for six hours at a time, on the Manhattan federal courthouse, his attorneys have mentioned he wants extra time, and requested that both he be launched briefly or that they be permitted to satisfy 5 days per week.

The protection has additionally mentioned the Brooklyn jail has failed to offer Bankman-Fried with Adderall for his consideration deficit hyperactivity dysfunction, or serve him vegan meals, inflicting him to subsist on bread, water and peanut butter.