FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried, seeking to avoid jail, denies witness tampering

Sam Bankman-Fried, the indicted founder of the bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange, on Tuesday said he never sought to intimidate witnesses at his scheduled October fraud trial, and there is no reason to jail him.

In a letter to US District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan, Bankman-Fried said prosecutors mischaracterised his intentions in giving a New York Times reporter the writings of former romantic partner Caroline Ellison, who is expected to testify against him.

“Mr Bankman-Fried’s contact with the New York Times reporter was not an attempt to intimidate Ms Ellison or taint the jury pool,” his lawyer, Mark Cohen, wrote in the letter.