Sam Bankman-Fried's lawyers say their client's internet access isn't reliable enough for him to review his case
- Sam Bankman-Fried doesn't have adequate internet access to review his case, his attorneys say.
- The former founder of failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX is awaiting trial in a Brooklyn jail.
Sam Bankman-Fried has been in a Brooklyn jail for almost a month after a federal judge ruled he tried to tamper with witnesses and revoked his bail.
Now, his lawyers say the failed FTX founder doesn't have adequate internet access to review his case as he awaits trial on fraud and conspiracy charges.
Bankman-Fried is allowed to journey from Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center to a Manhattan courthouse twice a week, where he is allowed to have internet access for five hours to review case files, the prosecution wrote in a letter on Tuesday. Their letter also outlined Bankman-Fried's access to offline laptops at the detention center.
His defense team said that same day, however, that internet access at the courthouse is weak and that the battery life of the provided laptop had not been sufficient.
The back-and-forth over internet availability is just the latest in a series of complaints from Bankman-Fried's lawyers over the conditions at the Brooklyn jail. They have also complained that their client has no access to vegan food and has been denied access to ADHD medicine. A group of public defenders have called conditions at the jail "inhumane."
Meanwhile, former FTX executive Ryan Salame is expected to plead guilty to charges related to the cryptocurrency exchange's collapse on Thursday afternoon. The move would make him the fourth FTX executive to plead guilty.