Sam Bankman-Fried, who was arrested on fraud charges last year after the collapse of his cryptocurrency firm, must await trial behind bars, a US judge has ordered. The 31-year-old was handcuffed in court and led away.
Judge Lewis Kaplan had agreed with prosecutors who had accused Mr Bankman-Fried of trying to intimidate witnesses expected to testify against him.
The hearing on Mr Bankman-Fried’s bail came ahead of trial, which is scheduled for October.
The 31-year-old was arrested in December after being accused of misusing billions of dollars from investors and customers of his bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX to pay for property, political donations and plug losses at his hedge fund, Alameda Research.
In 2022, Bankman-Fried had transferred at least $4 billion from FTX to Alameda Research, without any disclosure to the companies’ insiders or the public. The money transferred included customer funds, and that it was ostensibly backed by FTT and shares in Robinhood. Bankman-Fried had disclosed that Alameda owed FTX about $10 billion which was secured through customer funds held by FTX when FTX had, at the time, $16 billion in customer assets. On November 17, Ray stated in a sworn declaration submitted in bankruptcy court that according to the firm’s records, Alameda Research had lent $1 billion to Bankman-Fried.
In November 2022, Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao revealed on Twitter that his firm intended to sell its holdings of FTT, FTX’s token. Binance received $529 million worth of FTT as part of a sale of its equity in FTX in 2021. FTX collapsed almost immediately.
Bankman-Fried had shared the documents to try to make his case in the media that Ms Ellison was a “jilted lover” who had worked alone.
They also argued that it would have a chilling effect on other potential witnesses because it could make them fear “personal humiliation and efforts to discredit their reputation” beyond what would be permitted in court. They said he had participated in roughly 1,000 phone calls with members of the press in recent months.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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