FTX CEO Samuel Bankman-Fried faced severe criticism from prosecutors in a recent court filing.
The prosecutors accused Bankman-Fried of attempting to undermine a witness in his upcoming criminal trial by leaking diary entries from his ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison, a potential star witness, to The New York Times.
“By selectively sharing certain private documents with the New York Times, the defendant is attempting to discredit a witness, cast Ellison in a poor light, and advance his defense through the press and outside the constraints of the courtroom and rules of evidence that Ellison was a jilted lover who perpetrated these crimes alone,” prosecutors wrote in a letter filed in the court on Thursday.
“The fact that the defendant funneled this material through the New York Times, rather than directly commenting on the documents himself, is particularly pernicious,” prosecutors wrote.
“Having the story appear in a reputable newspaper with a worldwide readership without identifying the defendant as the source lends a misleading patina of legitimacy to what would otherwise be naked advocacy, compounding the risk of tainting prospective jurors,” they added.
Federal prosecutors have charged Bankman-Fried in Manhattan with perpetrating a scheme to defraud customers of his cryptocurrency trading platform, FTX.
They also claim that one of the methods involved commingling funds with Alameda Research, a hedge fund Bankman-Fried also controlled.
Ellison, the former CEO of Alameda Research, has admitted guilt in her involvement in thescheme and is fully cooperating with prosecutors in their investigation.
Last week, The New York Times published an article with excerpts from Ellison’s diary that she kept on Google Docs.
According to the diary entries obtained by the paper, it was clear that Ellison’s relationship with Bankman-Fried impacted her work at Alameda Research. In one entry addressed to Bankman-Fried following their breakup, she expressed that her role had “felt too closely linked to you in a way that was painful.”
“I have been feeling pretty unhappy and overwhelmed with my job,” Ellison reportedly wrote.
“At the end of the day I can’t wait to go home and turn off my phone and have a drink and get away from it all,” she added.
Produced in association with Benzinga
Edited by Saba Fatima and Maham Javaid
