Sam Bankman-Fried sought to cover up his misdeeds by trading in Robinhood

Federal prosecutors said that Sam Bankman-attempts Fried’s to control Robinhood shares worth $500 million last year show that the former cryptocurrency pioneer has made steps to “obscure” his alleged crimes.

After Bankman-Fried claimed ownership of the shares, claiming that he had properly purchased them and required the money to defend himself against the criminal allegations he was facing, prosecutors confiscated the stock and other assets worth more than $700 million.

Prosecutors claimed that despite Bankman-Fried being released on bond, he should still be barred from moving FTX assets in a letter to Judge Lewis Kaplan.

The initial circumstances of the purchase of these shares, through a foreign special purpose vehicle with no public connection to FTX or Alameda, “further indicate the steps the defendant has taken to obscure his criminal misuse of FTX customer property,” they claimed. “Since the Government’s seizure, the defendant has claimed that he would direct the majority of these funds toward making customers whole.

The new accusation was brought at the same time as Bankman-attorneys Fried’s and the prosecution were arguing over the conditions of his bail after the authorities said he had communication with the former general counsel of FTX, which they claimed implies witness tampering.

Limiting who Bankman-Fried may contact at FTX and its affiliated hedge fund Alameda Research is a goal of the prosecution. He has previously used encrypted messaging services at FTX with the auto-delete function switched on, so they also seek to forbid him from accessing them.

Bankman-attorneys Fried’s requested that the restrictions on his access to FTX assets be eased since prosecutors have not established that he was responsible for a strange transfer. They also suggested putting restrictions on his communication with former workers.

After Bankman-Fried made millions of dollars’ worth of assets accessible to consumers there soon before FTX applied for US bankruptcy court protection, prosecutors began to develop doubts about her interactions with Bahamian officials.