Sam Bankman-Fried Needs Tighter Bail Restrictions, Judge Says

A federal judge on Thursday ordered lawyers for Sam Bankman-Fried, the disgraced founder of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, to create a plan with prosecutors that would ensure Mr. Bankman-Fried does not delete text messages he sends while he awaits trial on charges that he orchestrated the theft of billions of dollars in customer deposits.

Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of the Federal District Court in Manhattan issued his instructions at a hearing Thursday, two days after rejecting an agreement that federal prosecutors in Manhattan struck with Mr. Bankman-Fried’s lawyers that would have limited his ability to use certain encrypted messaging services like Signal.

Judge Kaplan said the proposal had done “nothing but spark more questions in my mind,” explaining it did not fully eliminate the potential for Mr. Bankman-Fried to send messages that he could later delete.

“I read all the spy novels,” Judge Kaplan said.

The back and forth in court arose from a dispute over the conditions of Mr. Bankman-Fried’s bail. Prosecutors sought additional conditions last month after presenting evidence in court filings that Mr. Bankman-Fried had sent messages over email and the messaging app Signal to Ryne Miller, the general counsel of the U.S. arm of FTX. In court filings, prosecutors said Mr. Miller, who was not identified by name, could be a potential witness against Mr. Bankman-Fried.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/09/business/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-bail.html