A federal judge presiding over the criminal case against the former CEO of FTX Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried has ordered him not to have contact with current or former employees of the exchange as part of the bail conditions.
In a Feb. 1 ruling, Judge Lewis Kaplan of the Southern District of New York said Bankman-Fried must be barred from communicating with current or former employees of FTX or Alameda Research “except in the presence of counsel” to remain free. with bail through the court. As part of his ruling, Kaplan added that SBF could not contact anyone with an encrypted messaging app like Signal — prosecutors claimed in a previous filing that the former FTX CEO had used the app to reach out to FTX US general counsel Ryne Miller.
“Undisputed information available to the Court about the ‘nature and seriousness of the danger [. . .] pointed out by [defendant’s continued] release’ in the situation has changed since he was released, and it appears that there is a material threat of inappropriate contact with potential witnesses, “said Kaplan. cross.”
According to Kaplan, SBF was behind the decision to automatically delete Slack and Signal communications between FTX and Alameda employees starting in 2021, telling former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison that a legal case would be more difficult to build without proper documentation. He also cited Signal’s messages with Miller and other methods of contacting “other current and former FTX employees” in his decision.
The judge has yet to rule on whether SBF can be barred from accessing FTX and Alameda funds as part of the bail conditions as well. The Justice Department denied on January 30 that Bankman-Fried had reached out to FTX CEO John Ray to discuss ways to access the company’s funds. Judge Kaplan said he will hear arguments in the matter at the February 7 hearing.
related: FTX sister company Alameda Research is suing Voyager Digital for $446M
Bankman-Fried’s trial is scheduled to begin in October in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, where she faces eight criminal charges, including wire fraud. FTX’s bankruptcy case is also currently underway in the District of Delaware, where creditors recently sought subpoenas for information and documents from SBF family members.