Sam Bankman-Fried – the now disgraced former executive of the fallen crypto exchange FTX – is heading to jail. The judge overseeing his case has stated he is guilty of violating the terms of his bail too often. It’s also believed that Bankman-Fried has attempted to tamper with witnesses while away from prison.
It’s Jail Time for Sam Bankman-Fried
The judge in question is District Judge Lewis Kaplan. At a hearing in New York, he commented that Sam Bankman-Fried has too frequently pushed the limits of his bail. He stated:
There is probable cause to believe that the defendant has attempted to tamper with witnesses at least twice.
Lawyers for the former crypto head have requested a motion that would allow him to spend time at their offices later in the year to prepare for his impending trial, which is currently scheduled for next month. Following the reading of the judge’s decision, Bankman-Fried was placed in handcuffs and escorted from the courtroom by U.S. Marshals as his mother held her head and wept.
Prosecutors in the case released a statement offering more details on what led to the judge’s decision. It read:
Faced with a series of conditions meant to limit the defendant’s use of the internet and the phone, the defendant pivoted to in-person machinations.
FTX will likely go down as one of the biggest debacles of the digital currency space. The exchange – which first opened its doors for business in 2019 – rose to prominence three years later to become one of the top five digital currency trading platforms in the world. Its founder and chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried was lauded as a genius by many, and his net worth was in the billions towards the end of 2022.
A Major Collapse
Sadly, this reputation was short-lived as in mid-November, SBF complained of a liquidity crunch on social media. He said he needed fast cash to keep his business in operation, and he eventually turned to his biggest rival Binance about a possible buyout. While things appeared to be moving in that direction for some time, Binance eventually backed away from the deal, claiming the problems FTX was facing were simply too big for it to handle.
From there, the company filed bankruptcy and SBF resigned from his post. Things would have been bad enough if they had stopped there, but the trash meter kept rising. It was later discovered that SBF had potentially utilized customer funds to invest in luxury Bahamian real estate and to pay off loans taken out by his other company Alameda Research. He was eventually arrested and extradited back to the United States. He has entered a not guilty plea and was, up until a few weeks ago, awaiting trial at his parents’ California home.
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