The federal judge overseeing Sam Bankman-Fried’s fraud trial threatened to revoke the FTX co-founder’s $250 million bail package if severe restrictions weren’t placed on his use of electronic devices and apps.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan made clear at a Thursday hearing in New York that he didn’t think a government proposal that would limit Bankman-Fried to one monitored cellphone and laptop and restrict his use of Zoom to communicating with counsel was sufficient.
The hearing follows weeks of concern over Bankman-Fried’s use of encrypted messaging app Signal to contact FTX’s U.S. general counsel, a potential witness in the case, and his use of virtual private networks. Both technologies could potentially allow him to shield his communications from the government.
