Attorneys for Sam Bankman-Fried are claiming that he should have the right to use any assets and cryptocurrency currently owned by his ex-company FTX, as there is no proof indicating that he was accountable for prior rumored unauthorized transactions.
On November 11, 2022, Bankman-Fried stepped down as CEO of FTX following the crypto exchange’s bankruptcy filing. He is presently on bail while awaiting trial on charges such as wire fraud and money laundering; he has pleaded not guilty to all accusations.
After the government identified illicit transfers from Alameda wallets, Bankman-Fried was forbidden to access digital assets owned by FTX and its trading arm, Alameda Research. This ban encompasses crypto purchased with either FTX or Alameda funds. Mark Cohen, counsel for Bankman-Fried, noted in a January 28 letter that it has been nearly three weeks since the initial pretrial conference occurred. Also, he continued to state his belief that the investigation conducted by the government had proven Mr. Bankman-Fried’s claims all along—that not accessing or transferring these assets was indeed true.
With no evidence to support the request for a bail condition, Cohen urged Judge Lewis Kaplan of New York’s Southern District Court to revoke the initial order.
The Department of Justice recently requested, in a January 27 filing, that an additional bail condition be imposed: namely, a communication ban on Bankman-Fried, as he had attempted to contact FTX’s General Counsel, Ryne Miller, and another potential witness. Cohen agreed to the restriction but allowed Bankman-Fried access to several former employees, including his therapist, George Lerner.
Cohen argued that expecting Mr. Bankman-Fried to enlist counsel for every interaction with a previous or current FTX employee would unnecessarily exhaust his financial resources and impede his chances of successfully defending himself in court.
Moreover, Cohen noted that the people Bankman-Fried reached out to were close friends; thus, the obligatory requirement of having counsel present when communicating with them would take away an essential source of personal comfort.
