KEY POINTS
- Sam Bankman-Fried was released on a $250 million bail after he was extradited from the Bahamas to the U.S. in December 2022
- His bail conditions as well as those who helped him with his bail bond have been under scrutiny since last year
- He has been restricted from using a VPN after prosecutors alleged he used it in a couple of occasions
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), has proposed additional guidelines for the bail conditions of Sam Bankmand-Fried in its latest move to further restrict him from accessing the internet.
Bankman-Fried, the embattled founder of the now-bankrupt and controversial crypto empires FTX and Alameda Research, is currently facing multiple criminal charges related to the collapse of the businesses he founded.
The fallen crypto mogul’s trial date is scheduled for Oct. 2, which is still a few months away, but the drama surrounding him is already building up. Now prosecutors are trying to tighten the restrictions of his bail conditions due to his repetitive attempts to gain access to the internet.
Bankman-Fried, as per U.S. prosecutors, should be prohibited from using smartphones, tablets, computers and video game platforms and devices that would allow chat or voice communication, a court filing submitted to Federal Judge Lewis Kaplan showed.
Furthermore, the proposal sought the judge’s approval on restricting Bankman-Fried’s communication to “a flip phone or other non-smartphone with either no internet capabilities or internet capabilities disabled.”
U.S. prosecutors also proposed that the court should only allow Bankman-Fried to use a laptop with limited internet access or access to whitelisted websites, including YouTube, Wikipedia, Etherscan, NFL, DoorDash, Netflix and government websites as part of his new bail restrictions.
“Fifth, the defendant will not object to the installation of court-authorized pen registers on his phone number, Gmail account and internet service. Those pen register orders will be sought by the Government and maintained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” the court filing said further.
The court document, submitted by attorney Damian Williams of the DOJ, also sought the court’s approval on its request to make Bankman-Fried’s temporary bail conditions permanent.
These temporary conditions include restriction to contact or communicate with former and current employees of FTX and Alameda Research, except if his counsel is present, and the prohibition to use any encrypted or ephemeral call or messaging applications and virtual private network (VPN).
The proposal is believed to have already been negotiated with Bankman-Fried’s legal team.
Bankman-Fried was released on a $250 million bail after he was extradited from the Bahamas to the U.S. in December 2022. His bail conditions, as well as those who helped him with his bail bond, have been under scrutiny since last year.
However, his bail conditions came under fire when it was uncovered that he tried to contact potential witnesses on his case.
Bankman-Fried has also been restricted from using a VPN after prosecutors alleged he used it on a couple of occasions — on Jan. 29 and Feb. 12.
