The roller coaster of legal battles involving Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the popular crypto trading platform FTX, seems far from leveling out, according to a recent news update. His attorneys have expressed their profound disapproval of the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) latest motion to remand their client. They expressed that the accusations directed toward Bankman-Fried hinge on a “thin” factual foundation.
Intriguingly, this is not the first instance where the DOJ singled out Bankman-Fried, alleging that his actions have strained the bonds of his conditional release. Alameda Research’s past CEO, Caroline Ellison found herself in the center of this escalation, with the DOJ claiming that Bankman-Fried had exposed her personal diary entries to the New York Times, a ploy interpreted as intimidation and a scheme to alter her potential testimonies in his forthcoming October 2023 criminal trial.
The DOJ’s representative, Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon, carried these convictions boldly into last week’s hearing, insisting on Bankman-Fried’s detention. In their view, publicizing Ellison’s private content isn’t an isolated issue but rather, part of an ongoing strategy to deter Ellison and possibly other trial witnesses from testifying by fear of their deepest secrets being laid bare for the public.
Simultaneously, Bankman-Fried’s interaction with FTX.US’s general counsel to “vet things with each other” was presented as another sign of alleged tampering with witnesses.
Bankman-Fried is up against seven distinctive charges including securities and wire fraud allegations. Two separate trials lie ahead of him; one in October and one in March. The latter trial set by the DOJ will probe into an extra five charges against him, including the alleged conspiracy to commit bank fraud.
However, it’s worth noting the DOJ retracted a campaign finance charge last week, citing treaty obligations—a small breather in an otherwise escalating situation. Nevertheless, this tug-of-war between Bankman-Fried’s defense team and the DOJ continues to stir the crypto world, shedding light on the intensifying regulatory pressures and the broader implications these trials may have on the crypto industry.
Source: Coindesk
