Sam Bankman-Fried Accepts Gag Order, Wants FTX CEO John Ray and Government Gagged, Too

Legal professionals for Sam Bankman-Fried accepted a gag order in opposition to him in his prison fraud trial however requested for the federal government, new FTX CEO John Ray, and different witnesses to be gagged as nicely.

The prosecution’s request for Bankman-Fried to be gagged adopted its allegations that he leaked the diaries of former FTX colleague Caroline Ellison to the New York Instances to undermine her credibility as a witness in his trial.

Bankman-Fried’s attorneys wrote in a letter filed yesterday that their consumer had carried out nothing flawed and argued that he had the fitting to counter what it known as virtually uniformly damaging press protection about him.

“This poisonous media surroundings has been created and fostered in a number of fora by a lot of Mr. Bankman-Fried’s detractors – most notably, the present CEO of the FTX Debtor entities, John J. Ray III, who has routinely (and gratuitously) attacked and vilified Mr. Bankman-Fried,’’ they stated.

Sam Bankman-Fried Routinely Disparaged by John Ray, Legal professionals Say

Nonetheless, they accepted the gag order ‘’to keep away from additional distraction’’ and requested that ‘’all events and witnesses,’’ together with “John Ray’’ and the federal government, be gagged, too.

The letter stated the federal government was the supply of quite a few media tales and had touted to the New York Instances that ‘’the mountain of proof ranks among the many largest ever collected in a white-collar securities fraud case.’’

It added that John Ray had “routinely made disparaging statements’’ about Bankman-Fried that discredited him. They alleged that Ray’s ‘’repeated advert hominin assaults on Mr. Bankman-Fried’’ had helped create ‘’a poisonous media surroundings that has left Mr. Bankman-Fried with little alternative however to reply.’’

Former FTX CEO Agrees To Gag Order, Together with For All Witnesses In Legal Case #Corporations https://t.co/1kLoTkXgEl

— Vittondale Group (@vittondale) July 24, 2023

Sam Bankman-Fried Spoke to NYT

The attorneys acknowledged that Bankman-Fried had spoken to the New York Instances and offered it with paperwork for an article it printed on Thursday entitled, “Contained in the Non-public Writings of Caroline Ellison, Star Witness within the FTX Case.”

However he did that within the context ‘’of this hyper-toxic media surroundings,’’ they stated, including that the article printed final week by the newspaper was total ‘’favorable to Ms. Ellison and damaging in the direction of Mr Bankman-Fried.’’

Crypto alternate FTX filed for chapter late final yr.  Ellison has pleaded responsible to fraud prices associated to the crypto alternate’s collapse and agreed to cooperate with the prosecution in opposition to Bankman-Fried. He has pleaded not responsible.

Ellison was head of FTX’s Alameda Analysis, and Bankman-Fried has stated that he was beforehand in a relationship together with her.

Associated Information