US prosecutors and FTX founder close to agreement on bail

NEW YORK - Lawyers for Sam Bankman-Fried are nearing an agreement with the US prosecutors on revised bail conditions for the indicted FTX criptocurrency exchange founder, who is trying to convince a sceptical judge that he should remain free.

In a letter filed on Friday, Mar 17 night in Manhattan federal court, Bankman- Fried's lawyer Christian Everdell said both sides believed they were close to a resolution and expect to propose new restrictions by next week.

Bankman- Fried, 31, faces a trial set for Oct 2 on charges of stealing billions of dollars in FTX customer funds to plug losses at his Alameda Research hedge fund, and making large illegal political donations to buy influence in Washington.

Bail talks took place this week after US District Judge Lewis Kaplan renewed his concerns that Bankman- Fried's electronic communications with others might exceed the limits of his US $250 million bail package.

The former billionaire has not been arraigned yet on four counts and pleaded not guilty to eight counts. He is living in Palo Alto, California, under house arrest with his parents.

In January, Bankman-Fried tried to contact John Ray, who became FTX's chief executive when the company filed for bankruptcy last November, and an in-house lawyer. Prosecutors raised the spectre of witness tampering.

Bankman- Fried's lawyers said that their client was trying to help, not interfere.

At the Mar 10 hearing, prosecutors and defense lawyers proposed giving Bankman- Fried a flip phone with no Internet capability and a basic laptop with limited functions.

That was too generous for Kaplan, who said Bankman- Fried was inventive and could conceivably find a way around the restrictions without being caught.

Everdell asked the judge for permission to let Bankman- Fried use a laptop to access some FTX materials in Friday's letter.

Everdell said a lawyer or legal adviser would oversee his use and take the laptop away when Bankman-Fried was done with it, even though the laptop wouldn't have monitoring software or restrict Internet access.