Sam Bankman-Fried, prosecutors resolve dispute over bail conditions

In a letter to the judge overseeing Bankman-Fried's criminal fraud case, defense lawyer Mark Cohen said the resolution would more clearly define how Bankman-Fried can communicate with others as he prepares for his scheduled October trial. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan had last week temporarily barred Bankman-Fried from contacting employees of the now-bankrupt FTX or his Alameda Research hedge fund or using apps such as Signal that let users auto-delete messages.

Sam Bankman-Fried has resolved a dispute with U.S. prosecutors over the FTX cryptocurrency exchange founder's bail conditions. In a letter to the judge overseeing Bankman-Fried's criminal fraud case, defense lawyer Mark Cohen said the resolution would more clearly define how Bankman-Fried can communicate with others as he prepares for his scheduled October trial.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan had last week temporarily barred Bankman-Fried from contacting employees of the now-bankrupt FTX or his Alameda Research hedge fund or using apps such as Signal that let users auto-delete messages. The restrictions were added after prosecutors raised concern that Bankman-Fried might tamper with witnesses.

In Monday's letter, Cohen said prosecutors agreed to exempt some people from the no-contact order, without specifying names. His lawyers had previously proposed that Bankman-Fried not be allowed to talk with select colleagues, including former Alameda chief Caroline Ellison, former FTX technology chief Zixiao "Gary" Wang and former FTX engineering chief Nishad Singh.

Ellison and Wang have pleaded guilty and are cooperating with prosecutors. A spokesperson for U.S. Attorney Damian Williams in Manhattan did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Bankman-Fried has been free on $250 million bond and required to live with his parents in California since pleading not guilty to looting billions of dollars from FTX. Prosecutors first sounded the alarm about possible witness tampering last month.

They cited a Jan. 15 message that Bankman-Fried sent to the general counsel of the FTX U.S. affiliate, proposing that they speak on the phone to try to "have a constructive relationship" or "vet things with each other." Bankman-Fried's lawyers countered that their client was simply trying to provide assistance to the general counsel and had not been using Signal's auto-delete feature.

The proposed bail modification would let Bankman-Fried communicate by phone and email, use WhatsApp if he installed monitoring technology and preserved his messages, and use other digital tools including Zoom, iMessage and Facebook messenger. He would remain barred from using Signal.

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