Sam Bankman-Fried’s Lawyers Encounter Challenges Meeting Bail Conditions, Struggle to Monitor Parents’ Phones

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Fredrik Vold

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June 26, 2023

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Lawyers for disgraced FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried are struggling to meet conditions for their client’s bail, including a requirement that phones used by Bankman-Fried’s parents take photos of the user “every five minutes.”

The problems with meeting the conditions of Bankman-Fried’s bail were described in a letter filed with the court on April 19 where the lawyers wrote:

“[…] we learned recently that the monitoring software installed on the new cellphones we purchased for Mr. Bankman-Fried’s parents cannot, in fact, automatically photograph the device’s user every five minutes as required by the Order.”

The letter added that the defense team has explored “alternative solutions” to secure the parents’ cell phones in a way that complies with the bail conditions, without going into detail on what those solutions could be.

“We are optimistic that we have found a solution but need until the end of this week to conduct further tests on the monitoring software to confirm its capabilities,” the letter said, while requesting the court to grant an extension until April 21 to implement all bail conditions.

Although the deadline has now passed, there have not been any new reports about how the phones are being monitored.

Other than the issues surrounding the monitoring of the phones, Bankman-Fried’s lawyers said all of the bail conditions have now been implemented successfully.

The restriction on access to the parents’ cellphones for Bankman-Fried was put in place after the judge in the case previously warned that the former FTX boss could be attempting to influence witnesses in the case.

Among other things, Bankman-Fried has allegedly reached out to current FTX US council Ryne Miller, saying in a message sent via the messenger app Signal:

“I would really love to reconnect and see if there’s a way for us to have a constructive relationship, use each other as resources when possible, or at least vet things with each other.”

Last month, it was reported that Bankman-Fried’s parents had agreed to restrict their son’s access to electronic devices, including their own cell phones, under new bail conditions.

Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested in The Bahamas in December after US prosecutors formally filed criminal charges against him. 

He was eventually extradited to the US, where he was released to house arrest after posting a $250m bond in a New York court.