NEW YORK CITY, NY – SBF’s defense attorney Mark Cohen submitted a letter Tuesday to Judge Lewis Kaplan requesting time to speak with prosecutors about his client’s use of a VPN (Virtual Private Network), which can be used to conceal a user’s activity on the web without being traced. 

On Monday U.S. attorney Damian Williams sent a letter to Judge Kaplan stating his concern after the State discovered SBF was using a VPN “based on data obtained through the use of a pen register on the defendant’s Gmail account [that] the defendant used a VPN [...] on Jan. 29, 2023, and Feb. 12, 2023.”

Williams’ letter states that although VPNs can be used for “benign purposes,” they could also be used for masking a user’s IP address or to access “international cryptocurrency exchanges that use IPs to block U.S. users.”

Cohen’s response letter submitted Tuesday, explained that SBF was using the VPN to watch NFL playoff games on Jan. 29 and the Super Bowl on Feb. 12. Cohen requested the judge grant until Feb. 17 so that attorneys and prosecutors can “adopt a reasonable bail condition that allays any concerns [the Court has] about the use of a VPN.”

SBF has already been restricted from using messaging apps that could be use to potentially communicate with former employees of TX and the company’s attorneys.