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Tag Archives: Contacting
DOJ Seeks to Ban Sam Bankman-Fried From Contacting FTX Employees
The Justice Department on Friday asked a federal judge to bar FTX founder
Sam Bankman-Fried
from communicating with current and former employees of the collapsed crypto exchange without a lawyer present after prosecutors alleged he recently contacted a potential witness in his criminal case.
Mr. Bankman-Fried, who faces federal charges related to the implosion of FTX, reached out to the general counsel of the company’s U.S. operation through an encrypted messaging application earlier this month, federal prosecutors said in a filing. Prosecutors said Mr. Bankman-Fried has also contacted other current and former FTX employees and are concerned that the communications could lead to witness tampering.
Prosecutors also requested the judge prohibit Mr. Bankman-Fried from communicating through encrypted messaging applications like Slack and Signal, saying that when he headed FTX he directed employees of the company and his crypto-investment firm Alameda Research to set their communications on these platforms to auto-delete after 30 days. That policy has impeded the government’s investigation, prosecutors said.
“Potential witnesses have described relevant and incriminating conversations with the defendant that took place on Slack and Signal that have already been autodeleted because of settings implemented at the defendant’s direction,” prosecutors said in the filing.
Lawyers for Mr. Bankman-Fried in a letter to the judge said the government was mischaracterizing innocuous conduct by their client in “an apparent effort to portray our client in the worst possible light.” They said the government’s request was overbroad and unnecessary, proposing instead that Mr. Bankman-Fried be prohibited from contacting certain limited witnesses, not all of FTX’s current and former employees.
FTX’s U.S. general counsel, Ryne Miller, couldn’t immediately be reached.
The Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office charged Mr. Bankman-Fried last month with stealing billions of dollars from FTX customers while misleading lenders and investors. He pleaded not guilty and is currently under court-ordered confinement in his parents’ Palo Alto, Calif., home while he awaits trial.
Mr. Bankman-Fried sent a Jan. 15 Signal message to the general counsel in which prosecutors allege he said he “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.”
Prosecutors didn’t identify the other employees that Mr. Bankman-Fried has allegedly tried to contact but called the communications to the general counsel and others troubling.
“Were the defendant to ‘vet’ his version of relevant events with potential witnesses, that might have the effect of discouraging witnesses from testifying in a manner contrary to the defendant’s narrative,” the Justice Department said in the filing.
Mr. Bankman-Fried’s lawyers said the message to Mr. Miller was more reasonably read as an attempt by Mr. Bankman-Fried to offer his assistance to FTX, not a “sinister attempt” to influence testimony at trial.
Write to James Fanelli at james.fanelli@wsj.com
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Non-NFLPA-certified agent has been contacting clubs on behalf of linebacker Roquan Smith, NFL management council memo says
LAKE FOREST, Ill. — The standoff between the Chicago Bears and linebacker Roquan Smith over contract negotiations took another turn Monday when the NFL management council sent a memo to all 32 teams stating that a non-NFLPA-certified agent has been contacting clubs on behalf of the 2018 first-round pick.
According to a copy of the memo obtained by ESPN, the management council was informed by the NFL Players Association “that a person by the name of Saint Omni, who is not an NFLPA certified agent, is contacting clubs indicating that he is representing Roquan Smith, who is under contract to the Chicago Bears.”
The memo states that “Mr. Omni is prohibited from negotiating player contracts or discussing potential trades on behalf of any NFL player or prospective player or assisting in or advising with respect to such negotiations.”
On Tuesday, Smith released a statement via NFL Media stating that he had requested a trade after failing to work out a contract extension with the Bears. The linebacker said the offer extended from Chicago “is one that would be bad for myself, and for the entire LB market if I signed it.”
That same day, Bears general manager Ryan Poles reiterated his desire to work out a deal with Smith and said the front office had bestowed an offer with “record-setting pieces.”
Smith is not registered as a client of any NFLPA-certified agent.
The linebacker was not seen at practice Monday. After reporting to training camp on time, Smith was put on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list for the first 12 practices. He passed a physical and was activated from the PUP list Wednesday but did not participate in practice the following day or in the Bears’ preseason win over Kansas City despite being present at both.
The management council’s memo referenced Article 48 of the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement, which states that player contracts are to be negotiated only with the player, if he is acting on his own behalf, or with his NFLPA-certified agent.
The memo ended with a reminder of the league’s anti-tampering policy, which states that “no club is permitted to negotiate with a player under contract to another club, or with his certified agent, or to discuss a potential trade without the direct written permission of the player’s employer club.”
DWTS ‘ Peta Murgatroyd Says She’s “Filled With Regret” for Not Contacting Serge Onik Before Death
Dancing With the Stars‘ Peta Murgatroyd is expressing her grief following the passing of dancer and choreographer Serge Onik.
On Wednesday, Aug. 25, Peta took to Instagram to share a carousel of photos of the former So You Think You Can Dance contestant, including several shots of the two of them together. Serge, who worked with Peta and her husband, Maksim Chmerkovskiy, on choreography for DWTS, was 33 years old, and his representative confirmed the death to E! News on Tuesday, Aug. 24, although further details have not been publicly disclosed.
“My Serge…..my Koala I can’t believe it, I am completely broken,” Peta wrote. “I’m filled with regret because I was going to text you and tell you that I missed you last week and it slipped my mind. I f–king hate how I forgot to do this. I will always hate myself for this. My heart f–king hurts, my eyes f–king hurt and my soul is aching to squeeze you one last time. I just need one last squeeze and one last play fight like we used to.”
Celebrity Deaths: 2021’s Fallen Stars
She continued, “I just need one last giggle about something smutty and one last eye roll and maybe one last dance in the club. You were always such an amazing leader in dance and the king of rhythm. While I couldn’t write anything these past few days, the pain was too bad, I read all the beautiful messages from hundreds of people around the world. YOU WERE SOOOO LOVED…SOOOO LOVED, much more than you knew. You were so kind, so jolly and were the life of the party.”
In her message, Peta recalled Serge’s kindness while she was expecting son Shai, who the star welcomed with Maksim in January 2017.
“There are so many memories I will cry over until I see you again,” Peta shared. “But I will never forget your graciousness of helping me after giving birth to Shai. You made me dance, made me move and made me get up and believe I could do it again. I was HUGE and you told me I looked amazing haha and to not be so hard on myself. For that, I can never write/say anything that would amount to the level of gratitude I have for you. Your selflessness was unmatched.”
Among those sending support in the comments section was DWTS pro Alan Bersten, who is also a former So You Think You Can Dance contestant. “Tearing up reading this,” he wrote.
A short time later, Peta shared another tribute to Serge, including footage of him sending a bunch of air kisses her way, along with a video of him working on a dance for Peta and Nick Viall during DWTS season 24.
“The kindest soul, this video kills me now,” Peta wrote.