Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of defunct crypto exchange FTX, has set out to put up a stark defense in response to the revocation of his $250 million bond by U.S. prosecutors. According to a recent Bloomberg report, the indicted founder argued that imprisoning him would violate his “free speech rights.”.
Federal prosecutors have submitted a 12-page document asking for the bond that was given to him in December 2022 to be revoked on the grounds that SBF leaked “personal and raw” diary entries of his ex-girlfriend and former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison to The New York Times in an attempt to malign a “key cooperator testifying against him.”
“The defendant’s latest efforts to interfere with a fair trial—whether deemed attempted witness tampering under Section 1512 or not—more than establish by a preponderance of the evidence both that no set of release conditions will assure the safety of the community and that the defendant is unlikely to abide by any release conditions,” the bail revocation motion argued.
Denying the allegations, Bankman-Fried’s lawyer, Mark Cohen, wrote to Judge Kaplan,
Mr. Bankman-Fried’s contact with the New York Times reporter was not an attempt to intimidate Ms. Ellison or taint the jury pool. It was a proper exercise of his rights to make a fair comment on an article already in progress, for which the reporter already had alternate sources.
Sending Bankman-Fried to jail because he talked to a reporter will raise “serious” First Amendment issues, the lawyer claimed. As the plot deepens in the beleaguered founder’s legal battle, it remains to be seen whether this is a classic case of witness tampering or a legitimate free speech violation.
Meanwhile, FTX received a roundhouse kick from the UCC for its “one-sided” restructuring plan with no crypto specialist at the helm.
FTX Creditors Unsatisfied With The Restructuring Plan
A body representing FTX customers said it is “extremely disappointed” with the exchange’s proposed bankruptcy exit strategy and asserts that the restructuring team at FTX disregarded the group’s concerns.
FTX’s Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors [UCC] said in a court document dated July 31 that it “did not have a single call or meeting” with FTX to discuss its draft Chapter 11 plan, despite repeated requests and prior assurances from the team.