Disgraced FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried was escorted out of the courtroom Thursday after being released on $250 million bail ahead of his coming trial.
Under his bail agreement, Bankman-Fried, commonly known as SBF, will be detained at his parents’ home and have his location monitored by authorities as he stares down eight federal charges for fraud and campaign finance violations lodged against him in the wake of the FTX collapse, according to Reuters.
SAM BANKMAN-FRIED GRANTED $250 MILLION BAIL
Shortly after his crypto empire crumbled, Bankman-Fried claimed he had only $100,000 left in his bank account. His parents were law professors at Stanford Law School, according to the New York Times. Bankman-Fried was extradited from his Fox Hill prison in the Bahamas to the United States Wednesday.
The crypto guru is facing eight counts in federal court in southern New York, including charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit commodities and security fraud, violating campaign finance laws, and conspiracy to defraud the United States. He is also facing civil ligation from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
If convicted, he faces up to 115 years in prison.
Bankman-Fried co-founded FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange, in 2019 and quickly became a billionaire, buoyed by a crypto frenzy during the pandemic. During the summer downturn in the industry, FTX bailed out struggling firms and helped prop up the industry. But his fortunes took a turn for the worse in November after a collapsed deal with rival Binance spooked markets.
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Amid FTX’s collapse, revelations surfaced that FTX transferred billions of dollars’ worth of customer money to fund risky investments in Bankman-Fried’s trading firm, Alameda Research, which later filed for bankruptcy.
Others formerly in his orbit are also facing legal ramifications. Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of FTX’s sister company Alameda Research, and Zixiao “Gary” Wang, the former chief technology officer and co-founder of FTX, both have pleaded guilty to fraud charges and are working with federal investigators, a top New York prosecutor announced Wednesday.
