NEW YORK, March 18 — Lawyers for Sam Bankman-Fried are nearing an agreement with US prosecutors on revised bail conditions for the indicted FTX cryptocurrency exchange founder, who is trying to convince a skeptical judge he should remain free.
Bankman-Fried, 31, faces a trial set for October 2 on charges of stealing billions of dollars in FTX customer funds to plug losses at his Alameda Research hedge fund, and making large illegal political donations to buy influence in Washington, DC. Prosecutors raised the specter of witness tampering in January after Bankman-Fried tried to contact John Ray, who became FTX’s chief executive when the company filed for bankruptcy in November, and an in-house lawyer.At the March 10 hearing, prosecutors and defence lawyers proposed giving Bankman-Fried a flip phone with no internet capability and a basic laptop with limited functions.
In yesterday’s letter, Everdell also sought the judge’s permission to let Bankman-Fried in the meantime use a laptop to access some FTX materials.