Sam Bankman-Fried wants to watch Netflix and read crypto news while awaiting trial

While Sam Bankman-Fried awaits his day in federal court, he should be allowed to do legal research online, follow news and sports, shop on Amazon and order food delivery, according to a letter sent to the court by the U.S. attorney. Damian Williams. An earlier request that focused on messaging applications was dismissed last month by federal judge Lewis Kaplan.

Williams wrote to Kaplan again after consultation with the former CEO’s legal team, submitting requested adjustments to the conditions of SBF’s bail, and establishing an approval list of sites he could visit on a new, specially configured laptop.

“The list of websites is divided into two categories: websites submitted by the defense are necessary for the defendant’s participation in the preparation of the defense, and websites the defendant wishes to use for other purposes that the government has determined do not pose a risk of danger to society,” it says the letter from the US attorney.

Permitted Sites are described as not providing a private communication platform and not facilitating access to or transfer of cryptocurrency assets.

For SBF’s personal use, the “Suggested Whitelisted Sites” included Amazon, news sites The Wall Street Journal and New York Timescrypto media like Decrypt and CoinDesk, streaming media providers Netflix and Spotify, and food delivery services DoorDash and Uber Eats. Sports sites MLB.com and NFL.com also made the list.

Acceptable websites for legal research included blockchain explorers like Etherscan, crypto price trackers like CoinGecko, and resources ranging from Wikipedia to the Internet Archive to YouTube. All government websites were also allowed.

The laptop will be configured with a VPN to enforce the access list to the site, as well as allow Bankman-Friend to “access the cloud-based FTX read-only database provided as part of discovery,” the letter said. He will also get access to Gmail, Google Drive and Google Docs, “which advocates users with clients to share information”.

The US attorney also requested that Bankman-Fried be allowed to use Microsoft Office, Zoom, Adobe Acrobat, Docusign and the password management application 1password. Although his parents are Apple users, the laptop issued will apparently be a Windows-based machine, as the software list includes Notepad and Notepad++.

To track his communications and online activity, the SBF “will not object to the installation of court-authorized pen registers on his phone number, Gmail account and internet service.” These orders will be retained by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

As for other devices his parents have in their home on the Stanford campus — “each has an iPhone, each has an Apple laptop, and they share an iMac desktop,” the letter says — they will be stored, password-protected, remotely monitored and subject to inspection. In fact, special software will “[activate] the device’s camera when the device is in use and captures video or periodic images of the user.”

The letter also reiterates issues raised in an earlier request, including a restriction on who Bankman-Fried can contact, a ban on the use of encrypted chat or messaging applications and the blocking of video games that allow chat or voice communication.

Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested in December in the Bahamas and faces life in prison on fraud, money laundering and conspiracy charges.

Last month, Judge Kaplan imposed restrictions following allegations that the disgraced crypto mogul had contacted a potential witness via the encrypted messaging platform Signal.