Lawyers for FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried rejected prosecutors’ claims that his discussions with a New York Times reporter amounted to witness tampering but agreed to accept a gag order, they said in a letter to the judge in the criminal fraud case.
The letter, released on Sunday, came after prosecutors
sought to bar Bankman-Fried and allies from making public statements that could
interfere with the case.
Cryptocurrency exchange FTX, once valued at $32bn, filed for
bankruptcy protection in November as it was unable to repay depositors.
Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to fraud.
In the letter, Bankman-Fried’s attorney confirmed he had
spoken to and provided personal documents to the New York Times that included
documents written by a former colleague, Caroline Ellison, who has co-operated
with the US government.
“Bankman-Fried did not violate the protective order in this
case, nor did he violate his bail conditions, nor did he violate any law or
rule governing his conduct,” Bankman-Fried’s lawyer Mark Cohen said in the
letter.
An article published by New York Times titled “Inside the
Private Writings of Caroline Ellison, Star Witness in the FTX Case” reported
excerpts from Ellison’s personal Google documents from before the collapse of
FTX in which she spoke about being “pretty unhappy and overwhelmed” with her
job and feeling “hurt/rejected” from her break-up with Bankman-Fried.
Ellison led Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research hedge fund and
has pleaded guilty to defrauding investors and agreed to co-operate with
prosecutors. In December, Bankman-Fried said he and Ellison had been in a
relationship but gave no further details. © Reuters