NEW YORK—U.S. prosecutors on Friday asked a Manhattan judge to impose tougher bail conditions on Sam Bankman-Fried, expressing concern that the founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange might tamper with witnesses or destroy evidence in his criminal case.
Citing Bankman-Fried’s “recent attempts to contact prospective witnesses,” prosecutors asked U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan to ban Bankman-Fried from communicating with current or former employees of FTX or his Alameda Research hedge fund, other than family, unless a lawyer is present.
They also asked that Bankman-Fried not use Signal or other encrypted call and messaging applications, though he could still communicate through text messages, email, and the phone.
Bankman-Fried, 30, has been free on $250 million bond and required to live with his parents since pleading not guilty to looting billions of dollars from the now-bankrupt FTX.
Lawyers for Bankman-Fried did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In Friday’s letter, prosecutors cited a Signal message on Jan. 15 from Bankman-Fried to “Witness-1,” the general counsel of the FTX U.S. affiliate. Bankman-Fried expressed interest in having a “constructive relationship” or “at least vet things with each other.”
Prosecutors said this was “particularly concerning” because Bankman-Fried knew the general counsel had potentially damaging information, having participated just before FTX’s November collapse in communications in which Bankman-Fried discussed using Alameda funds to satisfy FTX customer withdrawals.
“The defendant’s request to ’vet things with each other‘ is suggestive of an effort to influence Witness-1’s potential testimony, and the appeal for a ’constructive relationship' likewise implies that Witness-1 should align with the defendant,” prosecutors said.
“Even if the defendant has not directly attempted to tamper with witnesses, [his] contact with witnesses may intimidate them” into not coming forward or testifying, prosecutors added.
In seeking to keep Bankman-Fried off Signal, prosecutors said he had in 2021 directed that many Signal and Slack communications be auto-deleted within 30 days.
Prosecutors said former Alameda chief Caroline Ellison, who pleaded guilty in the case and is cooperating with them, told them Bankman-Fried had indicated it could be harder to build legal cases if information were not preserved.
