Prosecutors are no longer comfortable with the terms and endorsements of Sam Bankman-Fried’s $250 million bail bond and have expressed their displeasure.
Precisely, Judge Lewis Kaplan of the Southern District of New York reflected on the fact that Bankman-Fried has been making use of encrypted messaging apps and virtual private network (VPN) since he came out on bail.
Therefore, the legal experts representing SBF, the young billionaire and former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of cryptocurrency exchange FTX are gearing towards presenting a revised bail package to the judge. According to Christian Everdell, Bankman-Fried’s lawyer, they “have been working diligently to agree on a set of specific bail conditions that will address the concerns expressed by the government and the court,”
In addition, “We believe we are close to a resolution and anticipate being able to present the court with a proposed order outlining these conditions by next week.”
SBF Leverage Encrypted Messaging Apps
After several court appearances following the implosion and bankruptcy filing of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried was released based on a $250 million bail bond. His parents were his guarantors as well as two other individuals that were later identified as Larry Kramer, a former Stanford Law School Dean, and Andreas Paepcke, a senior research scientist at Stanford University.
He was released to live with his parents in their California-based home while the case remains in court.
While in Palo Alto, it was discovered that SBF was using apps like Signal, an end-to-end encrypted messaging service. He particularly used the messaging app to contact employees of FTX and its sister trading platform Alameda Research. At that time, Judge Kaplan threatened to revoke his bail bond if he keeps up with the act.
Later, SBF’s legal team agreed with federal prosecutors that the young billionaire “shall not use any encrypted or ephemeral call or messaging application, including but not limited to Signal.” Instead, he was granted access to FaceTime, Zoom, iMessage, SMS messaging, email, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp but only if his device is monitored.
Meanwhile, Sam Bankman-Fried is still maintaining that he is not guilty of all the eight counts against him including the misappropriation of users’ funds.
