US prosecutors and the former CEO of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, have come to an agreement that would allow him to get in touch with some current as well as former employees of crypto companies that were once under his control.
The co-founder of FTX as well as Alameda Research has also agreed to some more restrictive bail conditions.
The agreement
Mark Cohen, a lawyer for the defense, wrote a letter to the judge who is overseeing the criminal fraud case of the former crypto billionaire.
The attorney explained in the letter that they had reached a deal with the prosecutors, which outlined the terms about how Bankman-Fried can contact others as he gears up for his trial in October.
Cohen also said that if the agreement regarding communications gets approval from US District Judge Lewis Kaplan, they would also withdraw the request for SBF being able to access and transfer crypto.
30-year old Bankman-Fried has been charged with eight financial crimes but is currently free on a bond worth $250 million.
He is living with his parents in California after he pled not guilty to the charges of stealing billions of dollars in customer funds from his FTX crypto exchange.
The issue
Last week, Kaplan temporarily barred the disgraced crypto entrepreneur from contacting employees of his exchange and hedge fund Alameda Research.
He had also been prohibited from using Signal and other messaging apps that auto-delete and encrypt messages.
The restrictions had been put in place after prosecutors had shared concerns about Bankman-Fried trying to engage in witness tampering.
The proposed agreement would still prevent Bankman-Fried form executing transactions that are valued at more than $1,000, with the exception of payments to his lawyers.
According to Cohen, the prosecutors had agreed to make exceptions in the no-contact order for some people but did not specify who the individuals were.
The terms
Lawyers of the FTX founder had proposed that he be prohibited from contacting specific people, including Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research.
Others included Nishad Singh, the former engineering chief at FTX, and Zixiao ‘Gary’ Wang, the former technology chief at FTX.
Wang and Ellison have both pled guilty and are now cooperating with the authorities. Prosecutors had warned about witness tampering in the previous month.
They had referred to a message that SBF had sent on January 15th to FTX.US’ general counsel in which he had asked him to talk on the phone for vetting things and establishing a more constructive relationship.
Attorneys for Bankman-Fried had said that he had only been trying to offer help. The agreement on Monday would mean that SBF can communicate via email and phone.
He would also be allowed to use WhatsApp if he agrees to install monitoring technology and does not delete his messages.
He would also be permitted to use other messaging apps like Facebook messenger, iMessage, and Zoom, but he would still not be able to use Signal for any form of communication.
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