What does this Bankman-Fried have on powerful politicians?
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what, me worry?
A judge asks a logic question: why isn’t this man in jail after repeatedly violating his parole?
A Manhattan federal judge on Thursday suggested he’d lock disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried up pending trial if the accused fraudster continues to improperly use electronic devices while out on bail.
Judge Lewis Kaplan asked federal prosecutors and Bankman-Fried’s attorneys why he should allow the alleged crypto crook to return to his parents’ California house, where he’d be surrounded by unmonitored electronic devices.
“There is a solution but it’s not one anyone has proposed yet,” Kaplan said at the hearing, referring to the possibility of ordering Bankman-Friend detained after it was revealed he used an encrypted app to message an FTX employee.
The judge noted there may be probable cause to believe Bankman-Fried committed a federal felony while on pre-trial release, “namely witness tampering or attempted witness tampering.”
“Why am I being asked to turn him loose in this garden of electronic devices?” Kaplan added.
Prosecutors did not seek Bankman-Fried’s detention at the hearing, but suggested more strict bail conditions that would essentially bar him from using all computers except while preparing for trial.
Prosecutors and Bankman-Fried’s defense attorneys will submit proposed conditions in the next week. Until then, Kaplan will extend an order limiting the accused fraudster’s access to electronics.
Thursday’s hearing came after federal prosecutors discovered Bankman-Fried had contacted a potential trial witness on the encrypted app Signal and used a virtual private network — or VPN – to access the internet.
Bankman-Fried’s use of encryption methods first came to light at the end of January, when prosecutors told Kaplan the shaggy-haired accused fraudster used Signal on Jan. 15 to message the general counsel of his former cryptocurrency exchange platform.
Prosecutors, in a letter filed Wednesday, urged Kaplan to impose stricter bail conditions on Bankman-Fried — arguing he did not need to use a VPN to watch the NFL.
Somehow, this all reminds me of the federal and state prosecutors’ incredibly lenient treatment of Jeffrey Epstein back in 2006. Epstein had powerful friends, but more important, he had powerful dirt on those friends. Bankman-Fried, also?
