A federal court has reportedly ruled against oral arguments seeking to allow a former FTX CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried, to use some chat apps.

As a condition of his release on $250 million bail, Judge Lewis Kaplan of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York reportedly upheld his decision to bar Bankman-Fried from using mobile apps. encrypted messaging. . The report was published on February 9 by Reuters. On February 1, the judge issued an order requiring SBF to refrain from communicating using apps like Signal. However, the legal team representing the former CEO and prosecutors had previously negotiated an agreement that allowed exceptions, including the use of Facebook Messenger, Zoom and FaceTime.

Judge Kaplan reportedly said he was “much less interested in [Bankman- Fried’s] convenience” of what was at SBF to contact potential witnesses in his criminal case. Court documents indicated that he had approached FTX US General Counsel Ryne Miller and current FTX CEO John Ray. According to Bloomberg, the court reportedly said that Bankman-Fried could be “smart enough to encrypt anything without a computer”, implying that existing bail conditions are required.

“There’s still snail mail and there’s still email and there are all kinds of methods of interacting that don’t present the same dangers,” Kaplan said. “There are many other ways to communicate that don’t present the same concerns.”

After her arrest and arraignment, Bankman-Fried appeared in person in court as part of the bond hearing; but, since then, he has been mainly confined to the residence he shares with his parents in California. The conditions attached to his release will reportedly continue to apply until February 21 as a result of Kaplan’s decision to extend them.

Bankman-criminal Fried’s trial is anticipated to begin in October. He is expected to be charged with eight separate offences, the most serious of which include wire fraud and violations of campaign finance laws. The United States Attorney’s Office has requested that the court enter an order delaying civil lawsuits, as well as discovery by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, until the case has been determined. outcome of the criminal case.