The United States District Judge granted the extension of date to file a reply on bail conditions after request from Sam Bankman-Fried’s counsel. He also postponed the oral judgment two days ahead of the date from the earlier scheduled date.
In a court filing on Thursday, Feb 2, counsel of FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, Mark Cohen informed about the mutual conversations between both the parties. It also consisted of the information of conversation regarding resolution of the issue related to SBF’s bail conditions.
Cohen added in the filing request to push the deadline of filing reply for submission of bail condition of transfer of crypto assets belonging to the company further. Earlier the date for submitting the condition was Feb 2, the day of court filing, itself. It was asked to extend by Monday, Feb 6.
The request for adjourning the “oral argument” date from Tuesday, Feb 7 to Friday, Feb 10 or whenever the court finds it “convenient”, was also noted in the filing.
US District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan permitted the request and extended the “submission of reply papers” to until Monday, Feb 6th as asked. Although the oral judgment adjourned also but until Feb 9.
Prosecutors asked for tightened bail conditions
The federal prosecutors filed on Friday Jan 27, asking for amendments in the bail conditions of Bankman-Fried. In the filing, the court was asked to prohibit SBF from making contact with any former or current employee from both the crypto exchange FTX and trading firm Alameda Research.
The prosecutors reportedly raise the prospect of witness tampering. It noted that SBF reached out to FTX US general counsel Ryne Miller to whom the court filings identified as “Witness-1.” The witness is likely to be called out to testify against the former FTX CEO, prosecutors said.
CNN reported on Wednesday, Feb 1, judge Lewis Kaplan acted over the request and temporarily tightened the bail conditions. SBF was said to not allow contact with FTX employees in the absence of attorneys. Also he would not be able to use encrypted messaging apps for communications until the hearing scheduled for next week.
Although SBF’s lawyers argued stating the message as “benign,” the judge disagreed and found it not persuasive. The instance made the judge go on with the decision to act on the prosecutor’s request of tighter bail conditions.
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2023/02/03/us-district-judge-extends-sbfs-bail-conditions-negotiation-date/