Fallen Crypto Mogul SBF Requests Judge to Allow Visits From ‘Close Friends’

Lawyers representing Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) requested Judge Lewis Kaplan to issue an order permitting certain people to visit their client without the necessity of security checks.

Despite being allowed to reside at his parents’ house, the former CEO of FTX is subject to strict restrictions. He must wear an electronic monitoring bracelet, while a security guard must be present should he invite guests.

SBF’s Wish

Bankman-Fried’s attorneys sent an official letter to New York District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan, asking the magistrates to enable people from their client’s inner cycle, dubbed as “close friends,” to meet him at his parents’ house in Palo Alto, California. They insisted that such gatherings could happen without a security guard being constantly around:

“On behalf of our client, Samuel Bankman-Fried, we write to respectfully request that the Court issue an order permitting the people on the attached list to visit his parents’ house without the need for a security guard to be present.”

Apart from “close friends,” the list of individuals includes colleagues of Barbara Fried and Joseph Bankman (SBF’s parents). 

The lawyers also requested that the names of those people remain a secret for broad society out of security reasons. 

“Here, even assuming that the list of people can be considered a “judicial document,” the individuals’ privacy and safety interests greatly outweigh any presumption of access to the list and justify protecting their identities from public disclosure,” the letter reads.

Not so Peaceful Life for the Family

Keeping the people’s identities “under seal” might be appropriate since SBF and his parents have previously become a target of violence and harassment. 

As CryptoPotato reported in January, three men crashed their car into the barricade of the house, telling a security officer:

“You won’t be able to keep us out.”

Subsequently, they got back in the vehicle and drove away without being recognized. The incident happened two months after the implosion of FTX, and shortly after, a New York federal judge permitted SBF to live with his family under a $250 million bond.

It remained unclear whether the men in the car were fallen investors from the once-prominent exchange looking for revenge for their potential losses. 

Bankman-Fried faces multiple fraud charges and, according to many regulators and agencies, is the main culprit behind the crash. The October trial will decide whether he was guilty and his eventual punishment.