OAN Newsroom
UPDATED 2:37 PM PT – Thursday, December 22, 2022
After his first court appearance since being extradited from the Bahamas, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has been released on $250 million bond.
On Thursday following his appearance in a Manhattan federal court, Judge Gabriel Gorenstein agreed to a bail package that was proposed by the FTX founder’s lawyers and by prosecutors. The agreement requires Bankman-Fried to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet and to be under arrest at his parents’ California home. He would only be permitted to leave his parents’ Palo Alto home for physical activity, mental health care, and for drug rehabilitation. Bankman-Fried’s parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, are both law professors at Stanford University.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams called the FTX case “one of the biggest financial frauds in American history.” Last month, FTX’s net worth decreased from $32 billion to $1 billion in a day. The 30-year-old claimed that he was down to his last $100,000, and that his parents “told friends that their son’s legal bills will likely wipe them out financially.”
The alleged fraudster willingly left the Bahamas to face a slew of charges in the United States. The charges he is facing includes wire fraud, securities fraud, conspiracy, money laundering and campaign finance violations. The combined charges have a potential to carry a sentence of 115 years behind bars.
Ex-CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang, have also admitted to playing active roles in the company’s fraud. They are likely to be key in the case against Bankman-Fried. The duo has pleaded guilty to many federal charges including wire fraud, securities fraud and conspiracy.
The following hearing for Bankman-Fried is scheduled for January 3, 2023.
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