The latest court documents seen by The New York Times revealed that Sam Bankman-Fried had used the Signal app to communicate with FTX US’s general counsel to allegedly influence a witness’s testimony to his case.

This was alleged by the Department of Justice, which also asked the judge overseeing his case to limit his bail conditions. Well, the lawyers of Bankman-Fried countered this as fake and said they were trying to paint him in the worst possible light.

Using Encrypted Chats to Communicate

As the prosecution of Sam Bankman-Fried (former CEO of FTX) is ongoing, the latest document filed by the lawyers at the Department of Justice revealed that – the defendant (Bankman-Fried) had used Signal app to contact FTX US’s general counsel – asking him for favor for influencing the testimony of witness related to his case.

This was seen by The New York Times, which reported the communication has also happened via email, with some text as;

“I would really love to reconnect and see if there’s a way for us to have a constructive relationship, use each other as resources when possible, or at least vet things with each other.”

The DoJ lawyers said this is “suggestive of an effort to influence Witness-1’s potential testimony.” Citing this attempt, they have the judge overseeing Bankman-Fried’s case block him from contacting current and former FTX employees and using Signal or any other encrypted or ephemeral messaging app!

This was countered by Bankman-Fried’s legal team, saying that the federal prosecutors are trying to paint their client in the “worst possible light” and claim that their client had actually tried contacting the general counsel of FTX US and CEO John Ray to offer “assistance,” not to interfere with his criminal case.

Further, they also stated that a ban for Bankman-Fried on using Signal isn’t necessary, as he’s not using the app’s auto-delete feature.

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