Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the co-founder and former CEO of the CeFI exchange FTX, has been placed under strict bail conditions, with his parents’ cell phones now under surveillance. The aim is to prevent any potential violation of the bail conditions.
Bankman-Fried’s attorneys asked for a postponement on April 19 for the execution of the FTX co-founder’s recently modified bail requirements, claiming challenges in finding the necessary surveillance software for his parents’ cell phones.
The ruling, which calls for an adjustment to the current bail terms, states that the monitoring software on SBF’s parents’ phones “will photograph the device’s user every five minutes” in order to make sure SBF doesn’t use them.
The software cannot, however, take a picture of the user every five minutes as required by the court’s prior ruling, according to the document.
SBF’s attorneys informed the court that the defense had put surveillance software on both of SBF’s parents’ phones and provided the government with a list of the apps that SBF’s parents use.
The Surveillance App Will Prevent SBF From Violating Bail Conditions
The same monitoring program, however, has other features that will prevent Sam Bankman-Fried from using his parents’ phones to circumvent the terms of his bail, including a keystroke recording function that keeps a record of all user activity on the phone.
Furthermore, the surveillance software will monitor the phone’s apps, messages, and web activity.
The keystroke recording tool will take screenshots of any activity on the App Store and keep a record of any new apps that are downloaded to the SBF parents’ phones from the App Store.
Additionally, a technical consultant will check the keystroke logs and screenshots “at least three times a week” to make sure that Bankman-Fried’s bail terms are being followed. The technical expert would also be in charge of informing the authorities of any violations.
The attorneys for SBF argued that these requirements were adequate to assure that any violations would be discovered and reported right away, and they asked the judge to adjust the bail requirements accordingly.
The decision comes at a time when there is heightened interest in Bankman-Fried’s use of cell phones. The court has deemed it necessary to restrict his phone, VPN, and internet usage in order to prevent him from altering any potential evidence or witnesses in his ongoing criminal proceedings.
