Sam Bankman-Fried bail denied, and the founder of the now-bankrupt FTX will sit in the medical unit of a Bahamas jail until Feb 8, 2023 according to CNBC.
The Reason Sam Bankman-Fried Bail Denied
The reason why the FTX founder and CEO denied bail because a Bahamas judge said Sam Bankman-Fried is a “great” flight risk. Thus, he has to sit in jail until his next court appearance on Feb 8, 2023.
Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyer pleaded with the court to allow his client to leave jail to return to his home with an ankle monitor. The crypto exchange founder offered a bail request of $250,000. I believe this sum was too little, and probably the reason why the judge denied the request. FTX lost billions in customer’s funds, and the fraud scheme was huge. In my opinion the founder should have offered at least a $1 million dollars bail. That would have at least shown the court he was serious about not escaping the Bahamas.
The United States Details Its Charges Against The Former CEO
The United States finally released its charges against the former CEO and it’s quite the list:
- Conspiracy to commit wire fraud
- Conspiracy to commit securities fraud
- Individual charges of securities fraud
- Individual charges of wire fraud
- Money laundering
- Conspiracy to avoid campaign finance regulations
If convicted of all the charges FTX’s former CEO is looking at decades in federal prison. And this is probably the reason he was arrested in the Bahamas. The United States wants to make sure Sam Bankman-Fried doesn’t fly off somewhere to escape extradition. I would hazard to guess many of FTX’s angry customers wants the former CEO to return to America, not only to pay for his misdeeds, but also so they can give him a piece of their mind.
