Judge eyes jail for SBF, says he’s free in ‘garden’ of tech

A Manhattan Federal Court judge on Thursday suggested he was prepared to jail FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried absent an airtight set of new bail terms — on top of his $250 million bond — ensuring he won’t use technology to fly under authorities’ radar.

Judge Lewis Kaplan summoned Bankman-Fried to New York from California after learning he’d used a VPN to watch the Super Bowl. The embattled CEO’s lawyers claimed his parents don’t have a television at their Palo Alto home, where he’s under house arrest.

Days before accessing the virtual private network, which disguises internet activity, Kaplan barred Bankman-Fried from using encrypted messaging apps after learning he’d tried to contact witnesses in his case on Signal.

At Thursday’s hearing, the judge said there was probable cause to suggest Bankman-Fried had “either committed or attempted to commit a federal felony while out on release” in the form of witness tampering.

Kaplan let Bankman-Fried leave and extended his current bail restrictions. He ordered both sides to provide a detailed set of new proposals and his lawyers to consider paying for a consultant to advise him on technology.

But the judge left Bankman-Fried, wearing a navy suit and a light blue tie, looking wideeyed when he suggested pretrial detention could resolve his concerns.

“There is a solution, but it’s not one anyone’s proposed yet,” the judge said, later noting the hearing wasn’t a bail revocation proceeding, “but it could get there.”

Kaplan said he remained unconvinced that proposed new restrictions drawn up by the feds, which would stop Bankman-Fried from using devices not monitored by the government, would prevent him from finding another way to skirt the rules.

Noting the feds had put “an awful lot of trust” in Bankman-Fried, the judge questioned whether his Stanford law professor parents didn’t have devices at home he could use.

“Why am I being asked to turn him loose in this garden of electronic devices?” Kaplan asked.

Bankman-Fried’s lawyer Mark Cohen disputed that his client engaged in witness tampering and told the judge he needed to remain out on bail with access to specific technology to aid in his defense.

“My client understands what’s at stake here,” Cohen said. “He’s literally on trial for his life.”

Bankman-Fried, 30, has pleaded not guilty to charges alleging he siphoned investors’ money from his crypto-trading platform FTX — once valued at $30 billion and now bankrupt — to his hedge fund Alameda and campaign finance crimes.