Alex Omenya
The U.S. judge handling the trial of FTX founder, Sam Bankman-Fried on Friday said he remained unsatisfied with the proposal to impose tight restrictions on how the indicted tech billionaire communicates with the outside world while free on bail.
SBF is fighting to stay out of jail pending the outcome of his trial scheduled for October 2.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan expressed concern about how the former billionaire was testing the limits of his $250 million bail package.
Bankman-Fried is charged with stealing billions of dollars of customer funds in FTX and using it to plug losses at his hedge fund Alameda Research.
He is also charged with using tens of millions of dollars to buy political influence in the US.
At Friday’s hearing, Kaplan said Bankman-Fried was “inventive,” and is capable of finding a way to circumvent restrictions and can communicate with others electronically secretly.
“He could find a way around it and conceivably not get caught,” Kaplan said.
Late last month, his prosecutors added new fraud and conspiracy charges against SBF. He now faces 12 charges.
He however pleaded not guilty to the original eight charges in January, while his associates Gary Wang and Nishad Singh pleaded guilty.