He is trying to influence the witness, alleged prosecutors.
. As per currently imposed conditions, SBF has been confined to stay at his parent's home in Palo Alto, California.30-year-old Bankman-Fried, who shot to fame with his cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, has been charged with fraud, money laundering, and campaign finance violations after he filed forfor his company. Once valued at over $32 billion, the company crashed after cryptocurrencies lost their sheen last year.
Although Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to the charges levied against him, prosecutors state that he was well aware of the transactions that were taking place at the crypto exchange, which led to a sharp liquidity crunch and later its downfall. Billions of investor money have been lost and prosecutors claim that Bankman-Fried directed top brass at the company to hide liabilities worth $8 billion.Bankman-Fried founded FTX and remained its CEO for much of the company's heydays.
The prosecutors told the court that Bankman-Fried's messaging app usage would obstruct their efforts to determine if he also tried to contact other former and current employees at FTX. The prosecutors said that tightening the conditions of the bail would "prevent the defendant from obstructing justice."
Bankman-Fried's lawyers claimed that federal prosecutors were painting the defendant in the "worst possible light" and he only contacted the general counsel and the current CEO at FTX US to offer "assistance". They also added that a ban on messaging app was no longer required as the former CEO had stopped using the auto-delete feature.
Bankman-Fried can currently entertain visitors while under confinement and has met author Michael Lewis who is writing a book about the crypto exchange founder. In his defense, Bankman-Fried has also started writing posts on Substack detailing his version of the event leading up to FTX's collapse.
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