Sam Bankman-Fried sent back to jail for witness tampering after bail revoked

Sam Bankman-Fried sent back to jail for witness tampering after bail revoked

Time Stamp: August 11, 2023 5:15 PM
Source Node: 2817907

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) finds himself back in custody after the presiding judge decided to revoke his bail. The judge in the case revoked his bail, citing credible reasons that the accused crypto fraudster attempted to tamper with witnesses

Bankman-Fried was remanded to the New York federal detention center in Brooklyn where he would remain until his trial begins on Oct. 2. Meanwhile, it didn’t take long after the ruling that Bankman-Fried’s lawyers filed a notice of appeal.

According to multiple reports, the infamous FTX founder was accused of witness intimidation after sharing private writings from his former girlfriend and business partner, Caroline Ellison, with a journalist from the New York Times. In addition, Bankman-Fried reportedly violated a previous order by using a VPN.

For the past eight months, Bankman-Fried had managed to avoid legal consequences, despite being accused of defrauding cryptocurrency investors of significant amounts.

Late last year, Bankman Friend was indicted on 8 criminal charges. The 30-year-old Bankman-Fried faces eight-count federal criminal charges including wire fraud and conspiracy by misusing customer funds, according to an indictment from the US Attorney of the Southern District of New York.

He could face up to 115 years in prison if convicted on all eight counts, according to congressional statutory maximum sentencing guidelines. Criminal attorneys said that SBF is at risk of spending the rest of his life in prison

Nick Akerman, former assistant U.S. Attorney who prosecuted white-collar crime for the Southern District of New York, said: “My sense is he’s going to face some pretty serious time here.” In a separate case, The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also charged Bankman-Fried with defrauding investors and customers in his failed crypto exchange FTX.

SEC said Bankman-Fried “orchestrated a years-long fraud” to conceal from FTX investors the diversion of customer funds to Alameda Research, his crypto-trading hedge fund. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) also charged Bankman-Fried in a parallel action with the SEC.

“We allege that Sam Bankman-Fried built a house of cards on a foundation of deception while telling investors that it was one of the safest buildings in crypto,” SEC Chair Gary Gensler said in a statement.

On November 11, the embattled crypto exchange FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Immediately after the news, the disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (also known as SBF) resigned as the CEO of the crypto exchange FTX Group and John J. Ray III was appointed the new CEO.

Meanwhile, an FTX insider turned on him days before FTX’s bankruptcy filing. Ryan Salame, who was co-CEO at FTX, flagged potential fraud to regulators and disclosed “possible mishandling of clients’ assets.”

According to a filing tied to FTX’s bankruptcy proceedings, Salame disclosed “possible mishandling of clients’ assets” by Bankman-Fried. Salam’s letter, which was included in the filing, was dated November 9, two days before declared bankruptcy. Per the report, the letter was sent from the Securities Commission of the Bahamas to the commissioner of police.

Salame’s LinkedIn profile shows that he’s based in the Bahamas. He had left the Bahamas for the U.S. by Nov. 9, according to the letter. Salame has multiple residences in the U.S., with homes in Massachusetts, Washington, D.C., and New Jersey.

Bankman-Fried first came into the spotlight in 2020 after he donated a whopping $5.2 million to Joe Biden’s campaign, making him the second-biggest donor.

Bankman-Fried founded FTX in 2019 with his co-founder Gary Wang. The Bahamas-based crypto exchange FTX offers derivatives products like futures and options as well as spot trading. Once an unknown startup, FTX has become a key player in the crypto space, rivaling the likes of Coinbase and Binance.

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