AP – Prosecutors and attorneys for FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried are requesting the disgraced cryptocurrency entrepreneur be allowed a flip-phone or another device that’s not a smartphone while on bail.
The proposal, submitted in a letter on Friday, comes as the judge in the case is deciding how to toughen Bankman-Fried’s bail requirements amid concerns the former billionaire might be communicating on electronic devices in ways that can’t be traced.
Prosecutors alleged last month Bankman-Fried used a virtual private network that blocks third parties from seeing online activity, known as VPN, to access the Internet twice.
They also said he sent an encrypted message over the Signal texting app in January to the general counsel of FTX US, a move they argued might indicate witness tampering.
Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to charges that he cheated investors and looted customer deposits at FTX, his cryptocurrency platform.
Judge Lewis A Kaplan, who is overseeing the case, has raised the possibility that Bankman-Fried might have to be jailed if his communications can’t be monitored to ensure the integrity of the trial.
The former FTX head was released on a USD250 million bond in December and is confined to his parent’s home in Palo Alto, California in the United States. Under the proposal, Bankman-Fried’s phone functions would be limited to SMS text messages and voice calls.
