Prosecutors say FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is harassing a key witness at his upcoming trial
NEW YORK (AP) — FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is harassing a key witness in opposition to him at his upcoming trial by giving a newspaper private issues she wrote whereas she was the chief government of his cryptocurrency hedge fund buying and selling agency, prosecutors say.
They requested a decide late Thursday to order trial individuals to not make statements which may taint the yet-to-be-chosen jury in a legal case over allegations that Bankman-Fried and different prime executives cheated buyers and looted FTX buyer deposits, partly to fund lavish life.
In a letter to Choose Lewis A. Kaplan, prosecutors mentioned Bankman-Fried gave a few of Caroline Ellison’s private correspondence to The New York Instances. They mentioned that had the impact of harassing her and appeared designed to discourage different potential trial witnesses from testifying.
They referred to as it an effort to “publicly discredit a authorities witness” and intervene with an Oct. 2 trial.
Ellison, 28, was CEO of Alameda Analysis, a cryptocurrency hedge fund buying and selling agency that was an offshoot of FTX.
FTX entered chapter in November when the worldwide change ran out of cash after the equal of a financial institution run.
Ellison pleaded responsible in December to legal expenses that carry a possible penalty of 110 years in jail. She has agreed to testify in opposition to Bankman-Fried, 31, as a part of a deal that would lead to leniency.
Prosecutors mentioned legal professionals for Bankman-Fried confirmed that their consumer had shared paperwork that weren’t presently a part of trial proof with The New York Instances earlier than it printed an article Thursday with the headline: “Non-public Writings of Caroline Ellison, Star Witness within the FTX Case.”
In line with the article, Ellison wrote that she didn’t assume she was properly suited to working Alameda or decisive as a frontrunner, and the doubts occurred as she coped with the breakup of a sporadic romantic relationship with Bankman-Fried.
The Instances reported that in April 2022, Ellison wrote in a Google doc that an earlier breakup with Bankman-Fried had “considerably decreased my pleasure about Alameda” and that life on the hedge fund “felt too related to you in a means that was painful.”
Attorneys for Ellison and for Bankman-Fried didn’t return emails in search of remark Friday. A spokesperson for prosecutors declined remark.
Of their letter to Kaplan, prosecutors stopped wanting asking the decide to jail Bankman-Fried within the weeks earlier than his trial.
They mentioned Ellison was anticipated to testify at trial that she agreed with Bankman-Fried to defraud FTX’s clients and buyers and Alameda’s lenders.
Prosecutors accused Bankman-Fried of attempting to “solid Ellison in a poor gentle, and advance his protection by means of the press and out of doors the constraints of the courtroom and guidelines of proof: that Ellison was a jilted lover who perpetrated these crimes alone.”
They mentioned they anticipate “overwhelming proof to present the mislead this protection,” and so they referred to as it improper and prejudicial for Bankman-Fried to malign Ellison’s credibility earlier than the trial.
Prosecutors additionally wrote that legal professionals for potential trial witnesses, together with some who reside overseas, mentioned their purchasers have been hesitant to testify in a case with persistent media consideration.
“These witness considerations will solely be heightened if witnesses are made to worry {that a} consequence of testifying in opposition to the defendant might embody private humiliation and efforts to discredit their status that transcend what the principles of proof would possibly allow throughout cross examination,” prosecutors wrote.
Earlier this 12 months, Kaplan had urged that jailing Bankman-Fried was potential after prosecutors complained that he discovered methods to get round limits positioned on his digital communications as a part of a $250 million private recognizance bond issued after his December arrest that requires him to reside along with his dad and mom in Palo Alto, California.
In February, prosecutors mentioned he may need tried to affect a witness when he despatched an encrypted message in January over a texting app to a prime FTX lawyer, saying he “would actually like to reconnect and see if there is a means for us to have a constructive relationship, use one another as sources when potential, or at the least vet issues with one another.”
At a February listening to, the decide mentioned prosecutors described issues Bankman-Fried had carried out after his arrest “that means to me that perhaps he has dedicated or tried to commit a federal felony whereas on launch.”