FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried has bail revoked and is headed to jail
Zachary Halaschak
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Embattled FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has had his bail revoked and will be placed back under arrest.
Judge Lewis Kaplan of the District Court for the Southern District of New York reportedly ordered the 31-year-old’s bail be revoked on Friday over accusations that he attempted to intimidate witnesses. Bankman-Fried was arrested last year on fraud allegations stemming from his management of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which suddenly collapsed in 2022.
Bankman-Fried will be detained through the duration of his criminal trials, according to reports from reporters inside the courtroom. Kaplan reportedly said that Bankman-Fried shared information with reporters with the intention “to hurt and frighten” former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison, who was also his former girlfriend.
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Bankman-Fried pleaded not guilty in January to 13 charges of fraud, conspiracy, making illegal campaign contributions, and foreign bribery in connection to the collapse of FTX.
FTX’s downfall immediately resulted in investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Department of Justice, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas in early December, just days after surprising many in the legal community by giving interviews about FTX’s collapse, including an appearance at the Dealbook Summit, where he was grilled about his role in FTX’s downfall.
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The FTX collapse had massive repercussions in the cryptocurrency space and caused the price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to plummet and stay low for weeks after. There have been congressional hearings about the collapse and lawmakers have expressed their desire for further regulations so such collapses and potential criminal activity can be avoided in the future.