By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell book
SDNY COURTHOUSE, April 21 – Sam Bankman-Fried of FTX was indicted in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, leading to his arrest in the Bahamas on December 12, and extradition to the US on December 21.
On February 28, with Bankman-Fried free on bond, FTX's Nishad Singh pleaded guilty to six criminal charges. Inner City Press put the charging document on its DocumentCloud here.
On March 10, Judge Kaplan held a proceeding. Inner City Press was there and live tweeted, thread here.
On March 27, Bankman-Fried's lawyers filed a sealed version of conditions it said DOJ agreed to - adding that "the Government does not object to the sealing request." Full letter on Patreon here.
On April 21, SBF's lawyers wrote it again to modify and loosen the conditions of release, saying the US agrees: "we respectfully request that the Court modify the Order as specified below. The Government consents to this request. The Order specifies that the monitoring software installed on the Parents’ Phones “will photograph the device’s user every five minutes” to ensure that Mr. Bankman-Fried does not use those devices. (ECF No. 118 at 1). As the Court is aware, the defense recently learned that the monitoring software does not, in fact, have this capability. However, the same monitoring software is equipped with a keystroke logging function that preserves a record of all user activity on the phone, as well as other capabilities that will guard against Mr. Bankman-Fried using the Parents’ Phones to violate his bail conditions. The defense will implement these features on the Parents’ Phones" - letter on Patreon here.
Double standards continue.
Back on March 28, another superseding indictment but continued kid gloves on detention. The US wrote: "On March 27, 2023, the grand jury returned a thirteen-count superseding indictment [with] an additional count for conspiracy to violate the anti-bribery provisions of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act."
From the complaint, Paragraph 103: SFB "and others known and unknown, at least one of whom was first brought to and will be arrested in the SDNY..." Paragraph 105: SBF "directed and caused the transfer of at least $40 million in cryptocurrency intended for the benefit of one or more Chinese government officials in order to influence and induce them to unfreeze the Accounts."
The US letter said, "The new charge does not change the Government’s position with respect to the appropriate conditions of release" - why not?
On April 11, SBF's lawyers wrote in: "On behalf of our client, Samuel Bankman-Fried, we respectfully submit this letter to request a one-week enlargement of time to implement certain specific bail conditions set forth in the Court’s March 28, 2023 order. Letter on Patreon here.
On April 18, SBF's lawyers wrote in for yet more time: "we learned recently that the monitoring software installed on the new cellphones we purchased for Mr. Bankman-Fried’s parents cannot, in fact, automatically photograph the device’s user every five minutes as required by the Order. Since then, the defense has been exploring alternative solutions to secure the parents’ cellphones in a manner consistent with the requirements of the Order. We are optimistic that we have found a solution but need until the end of this week to conduct further tests on the monitoring software to confirm its capabilities. Accordingly, we respectfully request the Court to grant an extension until Friday, April 21, 2023 to implement the bail conditions related to the parents’ cellphones. In the meantime, we respectfully request that Mr. Bankman-Fried’s parents be permitted to use their existing cellphones." Letter on Patreon here.
The inexplicable double standards continue.
More with analysis on Substack here
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