Judge Rejects SBF’s Bail Modification Request

NEW YORK CITY, NY – U.S. district court Judge Lewis Kaplan of the Southern District of New York has doubled down on his decision to restrict Sam Bankman-Fried from using messaging apps that the FTX founder could use to communicate with former FTX employees and lawyers.

As BCCN3 reported on Feb. 3, Judge Kaplan barred SBF from using “encrypted or ephemeral call or messaging apps.” In a rare instance of agreement between prosecutors and SBF’s defense attorneys motion filed jointly by both prosecutors and defense attorneys on Tuesday the judge ordered SBF be “denied without prejudice” the use of messaging apps.

On Tuesday Judge Kaplan ordered SBF to be “denied without prejudice” the use of messaging apps after prosecutors and defense attorneys filed a joint motion to allow SBF to use such apps.

SBF’s attorney, Mark Cohen, originally filed a motion on Jan. 28 arguing that SBF should be allowed to communicate with some witnesses “with counsel present” after Judge Kaplan first imposed the restriction.