SBF lawyers reach agreement on messaging apps usage
SBF will be allowed to use messaging apps including FaceTime, Zoom, iMessage, SMS, emails, Facebook, and WhatsApp — but not Signal.
Sam Bankman-Fried’s (SBF) attorney Mark Cohen said an agreement had been reached with prosecutors to allow the arrested FTX founder to use some messaging applications — excluding Signal.
U.S. prosecutors had motioned the court to impose a communication ban against SBF. The prosecutor claimed that the FTX founder secretly contacted employees of his FTX and Alameda empire to influence their testimony.
As a result, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan imposed a communications ban against SBF on Feb. 1. The ban restricted him from using encrypted and self-deleting messaging apps like Signal.
However, SBF’s counsel and the U.S. prosecutors have agreed to review the terms of the bail condition, according to a letter signed by attorney Mark Cohen.
The parties have asked the court to modify the bail conditions to allow SBF to use messaging apps, including FaceTime, Zoom, iMessage, SMS text, emails, Facebook, and WhatsApp.
Given that WhatsApp is an encrypted app similar to Signal, the parties agreed that SBF could use the app only if a form of monitoring technology is installed on his cellphone to record his logs.
The parties will appear before Judge Lewis Kaplan on Feb. 9 to consider the proposed modification to SBF’s bail condition.