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- FTX founder can have flip-phone and limited internet while he is on bail, as per the recent report states.
- In a letter seen by Bloomberg, prosecutors involved in his criminal case said that FTX founder’s lawyers agreed to modify the terms of his bail agreement.
FTX Founder, Sam Bankman-Fried should be allowed while on bail to use a flip phone that does not have internet capability. And a basic laptop that has only limited functions. The US Department of Justice said he will be forbidden from using other electronic communication devices, according to Yahoo Finance.
Restrictions on FTX Founder
On Friday, March 3rd, in Manhattan federal court, the proposal was filed that limits FTX founder’s communications. The proposal was filed on behalf of the government and FTX founder’s defense team. Now it needs approval by the US District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who is overseeing the case.
The report states that Kaplan signaled during a February 16th hearing that he might jail the FTX founder for testing the limits of his $250 million bail package by communicating in ways that could be hard to monitor.
The US District judge also said that he did not want to set FTX founder “loose in this garden of electronic devices,” following the claim that FTX founder tried to contact possible government witnesses and also used a virtual private network to watch football.
Till now, FTX founder pleaded not guilty after prosecutors said he stole billions of dollars of FTX customer funds to plug losses at FTX’s sister firm Alameda Research hedge fund. Bankman-Fried faces 12 criminal charges under an indictment made public on February 23rd.
The proposed flip phone or other non-smartphone for the FTX founder would be restricted to only voice calls and text messages. Additionally, Laptop internet use would be restricted to specified virtual private networks, 23 websites for personal use covering news, including Reuters, sports and food delivery. Also, the websites to help FTX founder prepare for his scheduled October 2nd trail.
Notably, FTX founder is in house arrest along with his parents, who are professors at Stanford Law School, in Palo Alto, California. Bankman-Fried’s parents agreed to submit sworn affidavits that stated they would not bring other electronic devices into their home or allow their son to use theirs.
According to the letter, the parents of the FTX founder also agreed that every device would carry software that periodically takes videos or photos of the user, which court officers would be allowed to review.
Last week, in the FTX drama, its co-founder Nishad Singh pleaded guilty to US federal fraud and conspiracy charges. He was FTX’s director of engineering and also the third member of FTX founder’s inner circle to agree to cooperate with prosecutors in the case against him.
However, late last year former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang pleaded guilty to fraud charges. Both of them said they would cooperate with investigators.