Sam Bankman-Fried’s legal team has requested a third extension to the enforcement of his revised bail conditions, citing difficulties in installing monitoring software on his parents’ cellphones to capture a photo of the user “every five minutes”. The team have had a tough time trying to monitor the usage of the cellphones of Bankman-Fried’s parents, which is a condition set forth in the Order except due to the monitoring software not being able to photograph the device’s user every five minutes as required by the Order. Although the legal team is optimistic that they have found a solution to monitor the cell phones, they need extra time to conduct further tests on the monitoring software to confirm its capabilities.
According to a court filing on April 19, Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyers, Mark Cohen and Christian Everdell, stated that they have successfully implemented “all of the bail conditions set forth in the Order”, except for the monitoring of Bankman-Fried’s parents’ cell phones. The legal team requested until April 21 to find a solution, but at the time of writing, no evidence suggests a solution has been found yet. The lawyers requested that Bankman-Fried’s parents be allowed to continue using their existing cellphones until a resolution is reached.
Speaking to Cointelegraph, Ken Gamble, executive chairman of private intelligence firm IFW Global, believes there is a conflict between the choice of phone model and the monitoring software being implemented. He notes that certain newer phone models are unable to “install the latest monitoring software” due to inherent security measures on the devices. Gamble emphasizes that the latest iPhones, for example, cannot have monitoring software implemented without actually “jailbreaking the device” first. He suggests that the solution may involve exploring alternative cell phones for Bankman-Fried’s parents that are compatible with the installation of the monitoring software.
In recent times there have been significant concerns raised over Bankman-Fried’s access to cell phones. Judge Kaplan highlighted that Bankman-Fried had a “garden of electronic devices” with access to the internet at his parents’ home. Kaplan warned that there was “probable cause” to believe that Bankman-Fried was involved in attempted witness tampering. It was reported on March 28 that Bankman-Fried’s parents consented to limit his access to their devices while also signing affidavits agreeing to not bring prohibited electronic devices into their home. Kaplan previously proposed on March 4 that Bankman-Fried be prohibited from using smartphones, tablets, computers, and any video game platforms or devices that allow chat and voice communication. The proposal said that Bankman-Fried’s communication should be limited to a “flip phone or other non-smartphone with either no internet capabilities or internet capabilities disabled.”
It is understandable that the legal team is finding it difficult to meet the condition requirements, as the monitoring software’s limitations are impacting the ability to monitor Bankman-Fried’s activities effectively. However, given the seriousness of the allegations against him and the consequences of non-compliance with his bail, the court may not grant further extensions. Bankman-Fried, who is the CEO and co-founder of cryptocurrency derivatives platform FTX, was arrested on December 22, 2021, in connection with a federal indictment against cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX, which he co-founded. He faces charges of violating the Bank Secrecy Act and money laundering conspiracy, with the potential to face up to ten years in prison.
