A federal judge presiding over the criminal case against former FTX CEO Sam “SBF” Bankman-Fried has ordered him not to have any contact with current or former employees of the exchange as part of his bail conditions.
In a Feb. 1 ruling, Judge Lewis Kaplan of the Southern District of New York said Bankman-Fried was to be prevented from communicating with current or former employees of FTX or Alameda Research “except in the presence of counsel” in order to remain free on bail through his trial. As part of his ruling, Kaplan added that SBF could not contact anyone with encrypted messaging applications like Signal — prosecutors claimed in earlier filings that the former FTX CEO had used the app to reach out to FTX US general counsel Ryne Miller.