Securities attorney Andrew Stoltmann reacts to a US judge’s extension of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s bail limits for “The Big Money Show”.
A federal judge imposed a new bail limit on Sam Bankman-Fried on Tuesday after finding that the disgraced FTX founder had been using a virtual private network (VPN) to watch football for the past few weeks.
Prosecutors filed a letter to U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan Monday night alerting him to their discovery that on Jan. 29 and Feb. 12, Bankman-Fried used a VPN to access the Internet and expressed concerns that his use of a private network prevents them from monitoring his behavior online.
Sam Bankman-Fried exits federal courthouse in New York City on Thursday, December 22, 2022. The former FTX and Alameda CEO has been released on $250 million bail. (Charles Guerin/Abaca for Fox News Digital/Fox News)
When Bankman-Fried’s defense team raised the issue in court Tuesday, they said his client used the VPN to access his NFL Game Pass subscription to view the AFC and NFC championship games and the Super Bowl .
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Not pleased to hear that Bankman-Fried was using a private network, Kaplan immediately banned him from doing so again, ruling that “the defendant’s use of a VPN poses many of the same risks that come with using an encrypted one messaging or calling application” – which he is already banned from using under his current bail agreement.
US Attorney Damian Williams speaks during a news conference regarding the criminal charges against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, Tuesday, December 13, 2022, in New York. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has charged the former CEO with failing… (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson/AP Newsroom)
The judge remanded Bankman-Fried to court for a further hearing on the matter Thursday and denied the parties’ request for an extension of time to consider further proposed changes to the defendant’s bail conditions.
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Bankman-Fried is under house arrest at his parents’ home in Palo Alto, California, and has posted $250 million bail after pleading not guilty to multiple charges related to the collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange.
Sam Bankman-Fried, Founder and CEO of FTX, on April 26, 2022 in Nassau, Bahamas. (Erika P. Rodriguez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images/Getty Images)
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Kaplan restricted Bankman-Fried’s communications weeks ago after prosecutors raised concerns the former crypto-titan was using encrypted messages to reach his former associates at FTX and his hedge fund Alameda Research to tamper with witnesses while he was away Deposit.