On March 10, Reuters reported that U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan expressed concern over the proposed bail conditions for former FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. As previously reported by Cointelegraph on March 4, Kaplan, who serves in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, proposed banning Bankman-Fried from using smartphones, tablets, computers, and any video game platforms or devices that allow for chat and voice communications. The proposal says that Bankman-Fried's communications should be limited to "flip phones or other non-smartphones that do not have or have Internet capabilities disabled."
However, during a hearing on March 10, Kaplan expressed concern about the proposal, suggesting that Bankman-Fried would be "creative" to find ways to circumvent the restrictions and secretly communicate electronically, according to Reuters. ways of communicating with others. Bankman-Fried's attorney, Christian Everdell, assured the court he would work with prosecutors on a new proposal that would address the judge's concerns.
Bankman-Fried is currently trying to avoid jail time until his scheduled fraud trial on Oct. 2. Prosecutors accused him of stealing billions of dollars in FTX client funds, making tens of millions of dollars in illegal political donations, and tampering with witnesses.
Bankman-Fried's $250 million bail has been under scrutiny since Feb. 9 after it emerged he had tried to contact possible witnesses in the case. Additionally, he was temporarily banned from using a VPN after prosecutors accused him of using it twice, on Jan. 29 and Feb. 12.
Three former close associates of Bankman-Fried including former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison, former FTX technical chief Gary Wang and former FTX engineering chief Nishad Singh have pleaded guilty and are assisting prosecutors.
