On Friday, federal prosecutors sent a letter to U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan asking him to change Sam Bankman-bail Fried’s terms to include a prohibition on private conversations with current and former FTX and Alameda Research personnel.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) requested after Bankman-Fried allegedly tried to sway the testimony of at least one FTX employee by contacting Ryne Miller, the current general counsel for FTX US.
Additionally, the prosecution asked that Bankman-Fried not make use of “any encrypted or ephemeral call or messaging application, including but not limited to Signal,” according to Judge Kaplan.
Prosecutors claimed in their letter to the court that Bankman-Fried sought out Miller and other current and former FTX workers on the Signal app, describing them as “the very people who until recently were the defendant’s underlings whom he supervised and financially compensated, and who are therefore most vulnerable to intimidation.”
In light of Miller’s first-hand knowledge of Bankman-actions Fried close to the time of FTX’s collapse, the prosecution stated Bankman-statement Fried was an underhanded attempt to influence Miller’s potential testimony.
