The U.S. Department of Justice has proposed new bail conditions for former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), according to a March 3 court filing.
Bankman-Fried should be barred from using smartphones, tablets, computers and any video game platform, according to the proposal filed before U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, serving in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York or devices that allow chat and voice communications. The proposal limits his communications to "flip phones or other non-smartphones that do not have or have Internet capabilities disabled."
Documents by solicitor Damian Williams "on behalf of all parties" also call for the temporary bail conditions recently imposed to be made permanent. The plan is believed to have been negotiated with the SBF's defense team, which was given until March 3 to submit a proposal.
Temporary terms include a prohibition on contacting or communicating with current or former employees of FTX or Alameda Research, except in the presence of an attorney, as well as prohibiting the use of any encrypted or ad-hoc calling or messaging apps, as well as virtual private networks or VPNs.
Bankman-Fried's access to the site will also be limited to a pre-approved whitelist of pages, which includes YouTube, Wikipedia, Etherscan, the NFL, DoorDash, Netflix, and government sites, among others. Under proposed terms, former FTX CEO would also be allowed access to news site. Bankman-Fried's $250 million bail has been under scrutiny since Feb. 9 after he was found to have contacted potential witnesses in his case. He was also temporarily banned from using the VPN after prosecutors accused him of using it twice, on January 29 and February 12.
The court unsealed a replacement indictment against Bankman-Fried on Feb. 22 containing 12 criminal counts, including eight counts of fraud-related conspiracy and four counts of wire and securities fraud.
