SBF agrees to gag order after New York Times article raises tampering concerns

Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) will agree to a potential gag order and refrain from making any public statements related to FTX and the people involved in the lawsuit, Reuters reported.

Presiding Judge Lewis Kaplan will make a ruling on whether the gag order is needed or not at an upcoming July 26 hearing.

SBF has come under fire for sharing information related to Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison during an interview with the New York Times, which prosecutors claim was an act of witness tampering.

No malicious intent

The former FTX CEO’s lawyers confirmed in a letter to Judge Kaplan that SBF had met with reporters and gave them documents that were written by Ellison but denied the witness tampering allegations levied by the prosecution.

The defense said that the prosecution’s claims were unfounded and SBF had no malicious intent behind his actions. According to defense lawyer Mark Cohen:

“[SBF] did not violate the protective order in this case, nor did he violate his bail conditions, nor did he violate any law or rule.”

The lawyers wrote that SBF will agree to a gag order if the court decrees it and refrain from making any public statements related to the case.

However, they added that the gag order should also apply to the prosecution and all witnesses in the case — including current FTX CEO John Ray.

The lawyers argued that Ray has “attacked and vilified” SBF publicly a number of times and continues to paint him as a “villain” despite the court having yet to reach a verdict in the matter.

Ellison’s personal diary

The New York Times published an article on July 20 that detailed some of the entries in Ellison’s “personal diary” in the form of google documents. They were written by Ellison during her time as the head of Alameda Research before FTX collapsed.

The excerpts mainly detail Ellison’s break up with SBF and her struggles in leading Alameda Research, which she wrote felt “overwhelming.”

Ellison has plead guilty in the FTX case and is cooperating with prosecutors. Her testimony could be a critical linchpin for the case since she was part of the “inner circle” of FTX leadership.

Prosecutors argue that leaking the private documents was an attempt to interfere with a fair trial by poisoning the jury pool toward a key witness.

They said at the time:

“In addition to tainting the jury pool, the effect, if not the intent, of the defendant’s conduct is not only to harass Ellison, but also to deter other potential trial witnesses from testifying.”

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