U.S. District Judge Asks For Proposed Orders Restricting Bankman-Fried’s Internet Use

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan is being asked by federal prosecutors in Manhattan to consider proposed orders that would restrict former FTX Chief Executive Sam Bankman-Fried’s internet use.

iexclusivenews reports that Prosecutors suggested that Bankman-Fried might have tampered with witnesses while out on bail. And the judge questioned whether the proposed conditions go far enough.

Bankman-Fried’s lawyers said his attempts to contact FTX’s current chief executive and general counsel were efforts to help, not interfere.

They said he used a VPN to watch National Football League playoff games on an international subscription he had bought while living in the Bahamas.

“We are dealing with somebody, who … has done things that suggest to me that there may very well be probable cause to believe that he either committed or attempted to commit a federal felony while on release,” Kaplan said.

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

He is being asked to be barred from using the internet except to review evidence in relation to the fraud charges and to use email.

FTX collapsed in November as customers raced to withdraw funds amid concerns about commingling of their deposits with Alameda assets.

Bankman-Fried has acknowledged inadequate risk management, but said he did not steal any funds.

Bankman-Fried, 30, has lived at his parents’ Palo Alto, California, home since pleading not guilty to fraud charges stemming from FTX’s collapse.

However, iexclusivenews Nigeria reports that it remains to be seen if the judge will agree to the proposed orders or not.