The US Division of Justice (DOJ) started wanting into expenses of market manipulation in August 2021 and opened an investigation in opposition to the cryptocurrency trade FTX in addition to the corporate’s founder Sam Bankman-Fried. All through the course of the inquiry, Bankman-Fried was detained and positioned beneath custody; he faces varied expenses, one among which is that of aiding and abetting illicit commerce. To be able to keep out of jail, he agreed to pay a bail bond of $250 million, which on the time was the best quantity within the annals of United States historical past.
Considerations have been raised concerning 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 functions 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 potential proof. The argument was primarily based on the truth that the functions could forestall 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 package deal to Decide Kaplan. This new bail package deal 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 functions was not carried out with the intention of obstructing justice however quite with the intention of sustaining contact with former coworkers and staff.
The case sheds consideration on the difficulties that regulation enforcement authorities have when trying to research and prosecute crimes utilizing cryptocurrencies, which generally embrace intricate technological hurdles and using encryption with the intention to preserve private anonymity. It’s potential 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.
