ALex Omenye
A U.S. judge is expected on Friday to deliver judgment on what restrictions Sam Bankman-Fried should face.
The judgment bothers on whether he will be free on bail, and if his Oct. 2 fraud trial should be pushed back.
The defunct FTX CEO is fighting to stay out of jail after U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan raised concerns in February that the 31 tech CEO was testing the limits of his $250 million bail package by communicating in ways that couldn’t be monitored.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged Bankman-Fried with perpetrating an “epic” fraud by stealing billions of dollars of customer funds in FTX to plug losses at Alameda Research, his hedge fund.
They have also said SBF made tens of millions of dollars in illegal political donations which was a ploy to buy influence in Washington, D.C.
Late last month, his prosecutors added new fraud and conspiracy charges.
He now faces 12 charges.
He pleaded not guilty to the original eight charges in January.
However, Ellison and Wang, once among Bankman-Fried’s closest associates, pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with the government in its prosecution.
Last Friday, prosecutors proposed allowing Bankman-Fried to have a flip phone with no internet capability and a basic laptop with limited functions but forbidden from using other electronic communication devices while on bail.
Prosecutors, defense lawyers, and Kaplan began revisiting Bankman-Fried’s bail conditions after the government said he sought to contact FTX Chief Executive, John Ray, and an in-house lawyer, a move his prosecutors said is a possible attempt to tamper with witnesses.
However, his defense lawyers said Bankman-Fried was trying to help, and not interfering.
