The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) is endeavoring to increase the difficulties for the former chief executive officer of the now-defunct crypto exchange FTX. In this respect, the agency has requested the judge presiding over the case of the lawsuit of Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) to revoke his bail agreement. DOJ intends SBF to go to jail for allegedly tempering the witness.

DOJ Persuades Judge to Revoke SBF’s Bail Contract Until Trial for Allegedly Tempering Witnesses

In its request, the agency argued that to stop Bankman-Fried from performing such activities, the court needs to send him to jail until his trial which is to take place in October this year. The submission was made on Friday and the DOJ has asserted in it that the accused has been involved in several attempts to affect the witness testimony. In addition to this, the DOJ is of the view that the present bail conditions of SBF are inappropriate to shield the public.

This comes after the decision taken by Bankman-Fried to reveal diaries related to Caroline Ellison (the former chief executive officer of Alameda Research) to the New York Times. SBF’s disclosure of the private writings of Ellison provides another example of the endeavors carried out by him to intimidate Ellison concerning her impending trial testimony. Apart from that, it is considered to be an attempt to influence or affect the testimony of the rest of the witnesses.

This shows that SBF is trying to impact the witnesses by signifying that their business is facing the hazards of being exposed in the press, as mentioned in the filing. On the other hand, Mark Cohen (the attorney of Bankman-Fried) had asserted that the accused was just practicing his right for defending himself in front of the common masses by revealing the content of the diary with the newspaper.

Nonetheless, the DOJ argued that the actions taken by SBF reached beyond just a fair commentary. As pointed out in the filing, the accused has frequently attempted to wickedly impact witnesses as well as intervene in the trial’s fairness via public shaming and harassment. Irrespective of the request made by the DOJ for rapid detention of Bankman-Fried, Lewis Kaplan (the Judge from the Southern District of New York) made no such decision.

On the other hand, he established a swift plan for the defense and prosecution to file official statements. The DOJ had to file their statement until Friday and it complied with the requirement. As a result of this, the defense can submit a response to this until Tuesday. Following that, the response from the DOJ is anticipated by the 3rd of the next month.

Judge Issues an Interim Gag Directive to Stop Accused from Public Statements and Interacting with Press

Judge Kaplan, in his recent hearing, expressed apprehensions concerning the link between the journalists and Bankman-Fried. He cautioned the accused to become serious about the matter. Apart from that, he released an interim gag directive to prevent SBF from public statements and interacting with the press until the judge reviews the submissions related to if the bail should be cancelled or not.

A noteworthy thing here is that this is not the initial time for Judge Kaplan where he expressed apprehensions regarding the behavior of SBF while he is on bail. In October, SBF has to go through a trial for the allegations dealing with wire and securities fraud. A separate trial dealing with bribery and bank fraud-related charges is planned for March 2024.