The USA Division of Justice (DOJ) started trying into costs of market manipulation in August 2021 and opened an investigation towards the cryptocurrency alternate FTX in addition to the corporate’s founder Sam Bankman-Fried. All through the course of the inquiry, Bankman-Fried was detained and positioned underneath custody; he faces numerous costs, one in every of which is that of aiding and abetting illicit commerce. With the intention to keep out of jail, he agreed to pay a bail bond of $250 million, which on the time was the very best quantity within the annals of United States historical past.
Considerations have been raised relating to whether or not or not Bankman-Fried would adjust to the phrases of his launch on account of the truth that he used encrypted chat purposes whereas out on bail. The Division of Justice said that his use of Sign and different apps constitutes a hazard to the present investigation as a result of it could impair the company’s capability to acquire doable proof. The argument was based mostly on the truth that the purposes could stop the federal government from accessing potential proof.
In response to those considerations, the legal professional for Bankman-Fried will quickly be proposing a revised bail bundle to Decide Kaplan. This new bail bundle is anticipated to include extra stringent monitoring mechanisms to make sure that the defendant complies with the phrases of his launch. The protection legal professional has contended that Bankman-usage Fried’s of encrypted messaging purposes was not performed with the intention of obstructing justice however somewhat with the intention of sustaining contact with former coworkers and staff.
The case sheds consideration on the difficulties that legislation enforcement authorities have when trying to analyze and prosecute crimes utilizing cryptocurrencies, which typically embody intricate technological hurdles and the usage of encryption so as to keep private anonymity. It’s doable that we are going to see additional cases just like this one sooner or later because the utilization of cryptocurrencies continues to rise. This raises issues about how the authorized system can correctly govern and oversee new applied sciences like cryptocurrencies and blockchain.
