Federal prosecutors asked a judge to modify the terms of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried's release on bond to ban him from using cell phones or the internet except under very specific conditions.
The request comes days after prosecutors alleged that Bankman-Fried used a virtual private network at least twice, supposedly to watch National Football League playoff games. It's a sharp escalation of previous requests, which mainly saw prosecutors ask that Bankman-Fried only be banned from using encrypted or ephemeral messaging applications.
"Within the span of a month, the defendant has used at least two methods of encryption in a manner that warrant modification to his bail conditions. His behavior shows that the existing conditions leave too much room for circumvention of restrictions aimed at preventing inappropriate conduct, including contacting witnesses and accessing cryptocurrency assets," the filing said Wednesday.
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