US Judge Refuses to Modify Bail Conditions for FTX Founder Bankman-Fried
By Luc Cohen and Jonathan Stamp
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A federal judge on Tuesday rejected a proposal to change Sam Bankman-Fried’s bail conditions, despite an agreement between the founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange and prosecutors to address potential concerns over witness tampering.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan did not reason for the denial and said a hearing on Bankman-Fried’s bail was scheduled for February 9.
A spokesman for Bankman-Fried declined to comment. The office of US Attorney Damian Williams did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bankman-Fried, 30, is at large on $250 million bail and has been living with his parents in Palo Alto, Calif. since pleading not guilty to looting billions of dollars from now-bankrupt FTX to have.
Prosecutors last month called for his bail conditions to be tightened, citing Bankman-Fried’s efforts to contact both the general counsel of FTX US subsidiary and new FTX CEO John Ray, ostensibly to provide assistance.
The proposed terms would prevent Bankman-Fried from speaking to most employees at FTX or its hedge fund Alameda Research without lawyers present or using encrypted messaging apps like Signal.
On Monday, Bankman-Fried’s attorney, Mark Cohen, said his client reached an agreement with prosecutors to allow communications with a specific group of employees, subject to Kaplan’s approval.
That agreement also prevented Bankman-Fried from using Signal, but allowed him to communicate via phone, email, SMS, Zoom and Facetime, and WhatsApp if he installed surveillance technology and retained messages.
(Reporting by Luc Cohen and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
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