- The US Department of Justice emphasized Sam Bankman-Fried’s alleged attempts to influence witness testimony while he was on bail.
- Prosecutors are now seeking to revoke his bail, and his lawyers have until August 3 to respond to the motion.
- This development comes shortly after the Justice Department dropped political campaign criminal charges against him, citing a treaty with the Bahamas.
After cooling down for a while, the FTX saga is gaining momentum once more as the trial of founder Sam Bankman-Fried draws near. The disgraced former CEO is scheduled to face multiple criminal charges in October, and there’s a possibility of him being sent back to jail if convicted. It appears that the Justice Department is eager to expedite the process.
The US Department of Justice has taken action against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.
They filed a motion to revoke his bail and return him to prison after it was revealed that he allegedly intimidated a key witness, Caroline Ellison. Ellison was involved with Bankman-Fried in multiple frauds and money laundering activities linked to FTX’s sister company, Alameda Research.
To underscore this fact, the prosecution submitted a filing to Judge Kaplan, requesting detention for the defendant. The filing included the following statement:
“The defendant’s leaking of Ellison’s private writings is yet another instance of the defendant trying to intimidate and corruptly persuade Ellison with respect to her upcoming trial testimony, as well as an effort to influence or prevent the testimony of other potential trial witnesses by creating the specter that their most intimate business is at risk of being reported in the press.”
During the recent hearing, it was revealed that Sam Bankman-Fried made more than 100 calls to a New York Times reporter and even provided physical evidence, including Ellison’s private documents and journals. The US Department of Justice flagged this behavior as an attempt to intimidate witnesses and potentially influence their testimony. To emphasize this concern, the filing stated,
“What the defendant may not do, and what he has now done repeatedly, is seek to corruptly influence witnesses and interfere with a fair trial through attempted public harassment and shaming.”
Sam Bankman-Fried, the defendant, has a deadline of August 3 to submit a reply to the prosecution’s filing. If Judge Kaplan finds the response unsatisfactory, it could lead to the revocation of the FTX founder’s $250 million bail, possibly resulting in his return to prison before the scheduled October trial.
The Justice Department filed their motion one day after dropping the political campaign criminal charges against Sam Bankman-Fried. As per the treaty with the Bahamas, the FTX executive would not be extradited by the Bahamas’ government until the charges were dropped, as mentioned in the filing submitted to Judge Kaplan on Thursday.
