
US District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan has revoked the bail of Sam Bankman-Fried, the ex-CEO of the now-defunct crypto exchange FTX, ahead of his trial scheduled for October. The decision follows allegations that Bankman-Fried leaked the diary of Caroline Ellison, the former CEO of FTX's investment arm Alameda Research, to the New York Times. Judge Kaplan announced this decision in a Manhattan federal court on Friday.
Bankman-Fried is confronted with several charges, including defrauding FTX investors, brought forth by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the Southern District of New York's attorney's office. He pleaded not guilty to these U.S. criminal charges earlier this year.
Initially, Bankman-Fried requested access to Google Drive, ostensibly for discovery purposes.
However, it was revealed that he utilized it to share Ms. Ellison's documents with the New York Times. Assistant US Attorney Danielle Sassoon highlighted this during the hearing on Friday.
In a hearing on July 26, Judge Kaplan had restricted Bankman-Fried from speaking publicly about his case, following the publication of the New York Times article on Ellison's diary.
Bankman-Fried had been under house arrest at his parents' residence in Palo Alto, California, under a $250 million bond since his arrest in December 2022. His bail was revoked due to allegations of witness intimidation involving Ellison.
The federal judge declared that a gag order was insufficient
due to Bankman-Fried's repeated misconduct, which crossed "a line.
Judge Kaplan stated during the hearing that there's a
potential for Bankman-Fried to be detained at The Metropolitan Detention
Center, a facility not known for its high-quality conditions. However, he
mentioned the possibility that Bankman-Fried might be granted a "dedicated
laptop" at the Brooklyn, New York, jail for a daily duration of nine to
eleven hours.
In late December, Caroline Ellison and former FTX co-founder
Gary Wang entered guilty pleas to multiple charges and agreed to plea deals
that involve reduced sentencing in exchange for their cooperation with U.S.
authorities.
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