A federal judge overseeing former FTX CEO Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried’s criminal case has issued an order allowing Sam Bankman-Fried to meet with his legal team outside of jail for roughly seven hours.
In an Aug. 21 filing of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled that SBF will be allowed to meet with his counsel in the cell block attorney room at the courthouse on Aug. 22 regarding one of his scheduled hearings. Kaplan ordered SBF’s bail revoked on Aug. 11, sending the former FTX CEO to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, likely until the conclusion of his criminal trials.
According to the order, SBF will be allowed access to “one Internet-enabled laptop and one WiFi device” from roughly 8:30 AM EST until 3:00 PM while meeting with counsel. His lawyers had petitioned the court to release SBF for five days every week through his trials in order for him to prepare for the case. However, Kaplan’s order suggested only a one-time release within the confines of the courthouse on Aug. 22, with another decision likely pending based on a response from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Bankman-Fried’s first of two trials is scheduled to begin on Oct. 2, in which he will face seven charges related to fraud at FTX. The latest superseding indictment filed by prosecutors on Aug. 14 said they will consider SBF’s alleged violations campaign finance scheme as part of a wire fraud charge. He will face five other charges at his other trial scheduled for March 2024.
Before his $250-million bail was revoked, Bankman-Fried was largely confined to his parents’ home in California. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
