Federal Judge Tightens SBF’s Bail: Imposes Restrictions on VPN Use

• The US Federal Judge ordered SBF to stop using virtual private networks.
• The order was in response to the attorneys’ concern over his hidden online activities.
• In a letter, the attorneys reported that the use of a VPN can hide the details of online activities.

According to the latest report, the former CEO of the fallen crypto exchange FTX, the ill-famed Sam Bankman-Fried has been ordered by the Federal Judge to stop using a virtual private network (VPN), denying him any access to the internet. The current decree is an aftermath of the attorneys’ concern over the possibility of SBF hiding the details of his private online activities.

On February 13, the US Attorneys of the Southern District of New York submitted a letter to the US District Judge, Lewis A Kaplan, citing SBF’s use of VPN:

Today, it came to the Government’s attention—based on data obtained through the use of a pen register on the defendant’s Gmail account—that the defendant used a VPN or “Virtual Private Network” to access the internet on January 29, 2023, and February 12, 2023.

In addition, the letter also showed the probability of SBF’s online activities being hidden with the use of a VPN. As the VPN has the ability to hide the user’s IP address by “letting the private network redirect it through a remote server run the VPN’s host,” the prosecutors were suspicious about SBF preventing the government or a third party from accessing his activities’ details.

However, the lawyers defended that SBF has used VPN only to watch the National Football League (NFL) and the Super Bowl:

On January 29, 2023, he watched the AFC and NFC Championship games and on February 12, he watched the Super Bowl. This use of a VPN does not implicate any of the concerns raised by the Government in its letter.

Previously,  Kaplan issued a statement against the claims of the defendant’s lawyers, rejecting their appeal to allow SBF to use Whatsapp with the monitoring technology, the iMessage. He even banned the use of other social platforms including Zoon and FaceTime, in addition to the ban of encrypted message apps including Signal.

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