Former FTX CEO SBF Urges Court For Access to Crypto Assets

• Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO of FTX on November 11th, 2022.
• Mark Cohen, Bankman-Fried’s attorney wrote a letter to the court on January 28.

A surprising development in the current FTX fraud case is that Sam Bankman-Fried’s (SBF’s) lawyers have urged that he should be given access to the assets and cryptocurrency held by his former firm FTX. Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO of FTX on November 11th, 2022 post-filing Bankruptcy, and is now out on bail after being charged with wire fraud and money laundering. He has maintained plead of not guilty.

Bankman-Fried’s release from detention was conditioned on his giving up access to any cryptocurrencies held by the FTX crypto exchange and its trading arm, Alameda Research, after the investigators presented proof of unlawful transactions emanating from Alameda wallets. Cryptocurrencies purchased using FTX or Alameda money are likewise included in this ruling.

Not Been Proved Reasoning

Mark Cohen, Bankman-Fried’s attorney wrote a letter to the court on January 28 in which he stated that the defense team has assumed that the Government’s investigation has confirmed what SBF has said all along, namely that he did not access and transfer these assets, in light of the three weeks that have passed since the initial pretrial conference. In addition, Cohen argued before Judge Lewis Kaplan of the Southern District of New York that the bail condition imposed at the conference ought to be lifted since the only basis presented for securing that condition has not been proved.

In addition, a document submitted by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) on January 27 said that Bankman-Fried had made an effort to reach FTX General Counsel Ryne Miller, who is a prospective witness in the case. 

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