According to a Feb. 9 Reuters report, Judge Lewis Kaplan of United States District Court for the Southern District of New York upheld his ruling that Bankman-Fried be restricted from using encrypted messaging apps as a condition of his release on a $250-million bond. The judge ordered SBF not to communicate using apps like Signal on Feb. 1, but the former CEO’s legal team and prosecutors had negotiated a deal allowing for exceptions including Facebook Messenger, Zoom, and Facetime.
Judge Kaplan reportedly said he was "far less interested in [Bankman-Fried’s] convenience" than in the former FTX CEO contacting potential witnesses in his criminal case — court filings showed SBF had reached out to FTX US general counsel Ryne Miller and current FTX CEO John Ray. Bloomberg reported the judge said Bankman-Fried could be “bright enough to encrypt something without a computer,” suggesting that the current bail restrictions were necessary.
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