New York Judge Says FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Faces Jail Without Tighter Bail Restrictions

A Manhattan Federal Court judge on Thursday suggested that he was prepared to jail FTX founder Sam Bankman-Freed unless there were airtight new bail terms – in addition to his $250 million bail – ensuring he would not use technology. to go unnoticed by the authorities.

Judge Lewis Kaplan called Bankman-Fried to New York from California after learning he used a VPN to watch the Super Bowl. Lawyers for the CEO said his parents don’t have a TV in their Palo Alto home, where he is under house arrest.

Days before accessing a virtual private network that masks internet activity, Kaplan banned Bankman-Fried from using encrypted messaging apps after learning he was trying to contact witnesses in his Signal case.

At Thursday’s hearing, the judge said there was good reason to believe that Bankman-Fried “either committed or attempted to commit a federal crime while at large” in the form of witness tampering.

Kaplan allowed Bankman-Fried to leave and extended the current bail restrictions. He ordered both parties to submit a detailed set of new proposals and his lawyers to consider paying a consultant to advise him on the technology.

But the judge left Bankman-Freed in a navy blue suit and light blue tie, wide-eyed as he suggested pre-trial detention might solve his problems.

“There is a solution, but no one has yet proposed it,” the judge said, later noting that the hearing was not a bail release procedure, “but it can be reached.”

Kaplan said he remains unconvinced that proposed new restrictions drafted by the feds that would prevent Bankman-Fried from using non-government controlled devices will prevent him from finding another way to get around the rules.

Noting that the feds had given Bankman-Freed “a lot of credit,” the judge wondered if his parents, a law professor at Stanford, had devices at home that he could use.

“Why am I being asked to release it into this garden of electronic devices?” Kaplan asked.

Bankman-Fried’s attorney Mark Cohen disputed that his client was tampering with witness statements and told the judge he needed to remain on bail while having access to certain technologies to help in his defense.

“My client understands what is at stake here,” Cohen said. “He is literally on trial for his life.”

Bankman-Fried, 30, has pleaded not guilty to allegations that he siphoned investor money from his once $30 billion and now bankrupt cryptocurrency trading platform FTX to his Alameda hedge fund and crimes. campaign finance.