Bankman-Fried Agrees To Gag Order After “Star Witness” Ellison’s Diary Was Leaked To Press Last Week

It looks as though it may be time to re-up some of those Democratic donations for Sam Bankman-Fried, because there’s at least one judge out there that isn’t amused with his antics. 

The former FTX founder has now agreed to a gag order that will “largely” prevent him from discussing his case publicly, Bloomberg wrote this week. Prosecutors in the case had accused Bankman-Fried of trying to discredit Caroline Ellison, who formerly lived with and worked with Bankman-Fried in the Bahamas. 

US District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan said this week he was going to deal with the “adequacy and continuation” of SBF’s bail conditions. As Bloomberg wrote, this means SBF’s “current house arrest could be in jeopardy while he awaits trial on criminal fraud charges”.

Bankman-Fried will appear in court on Wednesday for a hearing. 

Judge Kaplan has already concerned himself with Bankman-Fried’s bail restrictions, in the past warning that SBF needed to “rein in his use of encrypted messaging apps and VPN programs,” the report says. 

The order was filed on Monday and and bans SBF and “other parties” from discussing anything with the press that “could interfere with a fair trial”. Specifically, Bloomberg writes that this could include “credibility of witnesses, information that isn’t admissible at trial and anything that could influence public opinion about the case”.

The “star witness” in the case has already pleaded guilty to fraud in a deal with prosecutors, the report says. Not only did she run Alameda Research, an offshoot of FTX, she also dated Bankman-Fried at one point. 

The scrutiny this week came after a story broke last week in The New York Times about Ellison’s diary, detailing her “ambivalence” about her role at Alameda and her relationship with Bankman-Fried. 

Prosecutors charged that SBF had leaked the material to “cast Ellison in a poor light, and advance his defense through the press.”

In a note filed Sunday, Bankman-Fried’s lawyers said that he had shared documents “in an effort to give his side of the story about topics that have already been reported in the media.” They argued that FTX’s new CEO “attacked” Bankman-Fried publicly while they “stood silent” and did nothing.