Sam Bankman-Fried risks returning to prison for using the Internet

Сем Бенкман-Фрід" href="https://noworries.media/biography/sem-benkman-frid/" data-bio-id="3697">Sam Bankman-Fried may return to prison if he continues to use the Internet. Judge Lewis Kaplan warned him about this at the next hearing in the FTX case. Kaplan expressed skepticism about how much the former CEO of the crypto exchange could be trusted, leaving him in a house with Internet access while awaiting trial.

Benkman-Fried, who is facing fraud and money laundering charges, is taking advantage of his house arrest to contact potential witnesses and try to influence their testimony. To do so, he used the secure instant messaging app Signal. The judge also expressed dissatisfaction with the fact that the suspect was using a VPN, a technology that allows you to hide your Internet activity.

Currently, prosecutors are trying to tighten the conditions of Benkman-Fried's bail, but have not yet requested that it be revoked and he be imprisoned. However, Kaplan has made it clear that he may revoke the bail if SBF uses the Internet for illegal purposes.

As a reminder, the FTX founder’s lawyers said that he used a VPN to watch the Super Bowl and other NFL games. Stanford University academics Larry Kramer and Andreas Paepcke may be the first to suffer because of Bankman-Fried's actions, as they have pledged to pay $ 500,000 and $ 200,000 respectively if their bail conditions are violated.

The official indictment accuses Fried of defrauding FTX clients since 2019. The ex-billionaire is also suspected of making tens of millions in illegal political donations to protect himself and his business. Earlier, there were rumors that the ex-CEO of FTX bribed US Democrats and that is why he remained at large. The arrested Freed was first extradited from the Bahamas to the United States and then released on $ 250 million bail.