Lawyers for former FTX CEO Sam Bankman Fried have requested pretrial release, citing a lack of adequate internet connectivity in federal prisons. SBF’s legal team argued that poor internet connectivity hampered the preparation of their defense and resulted in lost time.
court Archive September 8 was the second such request for pretrial release last week, after an appeals judge on September 6 rejected the SBF’s request for immediate release from prison. The judge then referred the motion to the next three-judge panel.
The SBF legal team argued that despite government assurances that their customers could use their laptops from 8am to 7pm on weekdays, these promises had not been fulfilled. Lawyers also cited instances where SBF’s access to Internet laptops was cut short as a result of jail proceedings.
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The first occurred on Sept. 1, when Bankman-Fried was called back to his cell at 2:30 p.m. for a head count, which took him four hours to prepare. In the second incident on September 6, SBF was not released from his cell until 11:00 am. When Bankman-Fried tried to access the discovery database, a poor Internet connection allowed only one document in the database to be viewed. The legal team noted in the filing:
“Despite the government’s efforts, there appears to be no way to resolve the issue of internet access within the cell. This means Mr. Bankman-Fried is unable to view and search documents in the Discovery database or AWS database prior to trial. Due to these restrictions, the defendant cannot Be prepared for trial.”
After being arrested in the Bahamas on December 12 last year, SBF was released on a $250 million bail. Since then, he has spent most of his time at his parents’ home in California. However, his bail was revoked on August 11 after SBF was found to have attempted to contact and intimidate former FTX executives and witnesses in the proceedings.
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Bankman-Fried’s legal team has since filed multiple appeals seeking pretrial release, however, the judge reviewing such motions concluded that he had repeatedly violated his bail conditions and therefore could not be immediately released.
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