SBF’s Internet Access Issue Resurfaces, Hinders Evidence Prep

Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) has once more contested his internet access, following recent confirmation by prosecutors that they had established sufficient internet and laptop access.

“As we feared, the current plan does not work in practice” SBF’s lawyers declared in a court filing. 

SBF Asserts Internet Speed Is Intolerable

In a recent letter addressed to Judge Lewis Kaplan, SBF’s legal team disagreed with the prosecutors’ claim that he presently has adequate internet connectivity to review evidence before his impending fraud trial.

Prosecutors had previously claimed that they had performed numerous internet connectivity checks to verify an appropriate speed. They stated in a recent court filing although the internet speed varied in the late afternoon, all three internet speeds are sufficient for most internet review activities:

“During the morning and early afternoon, the download transfer rate was recorded at 34 Mbps. During the late afternoon, the download transfer rate was recorded at 7.5 Mbps.”

However, SBF’s legal team vehemently disagreed.

“The internet connection was so slow that it took 10 minutes for the home page to load,” they allege, explaining that it is causing significant challenges in SBF’s efforts to review evidence.

“By 1:00pm – 11⁄2 hours later – Mr. Bankman-Fried was only able to load one document from the database to review. Effectively, Mr. Bankman-Fried had no access to the internet for the entire 5-hour period,” the filing further stated.

SBF’s lawyers argue that despite the prosecutor’s efforts, a solution to internet access in the cellblock remains elusive. They allege that it means SBF lacks the means to review and search documents through the discovery database before the upcoming trial.

This is a developing story and more information will be added as it becomes available.