Lewis
Kaplan, the judge presiding over the case between the United States and Sam
Bankman-Fried, has sent the Founder of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange to jail
ahead of his criminal trial billed for October 2, 2023. The follows successful
argument by US prosecutors that Bank-man-Fried tried to tamper with witnesses
in the case at least twice.
Bankman-Fried,
who was arrested in the Bahamas last year in connection with the collapse of
FTX and several of its affiliates, was released
on a hefty $250 million
bond in December,
following his extradition to the United States.
However,
after Bankman-Fried shared the personal
details of Caroline Ellison, his former ally and romantic partner, with the
New York Times, he was accused of witness tampering by federal prosecutors. The US government also argued that
the FTX Founder through the action violated the terms of his bail.
Ellison,
who is the former CEO of FTX’s sister trading firm, Alameda Research, pleaded guilty to
criminal charges in December alongside two former senior executives of FTX, Gary Wang
and Nishad Singh. She has been cooperating with the public investigation into
FTX’s collapse since then and is expected to be a star witness in
Bankman-Fried’s upcoming trial.
Judge
Kaplan previously restricted Bankman-Fried from communicating publicly and considered jailing him over the allegations of witness
tampering. This is even as Bankman-Fried
initially agreed to a gag order, requesting that the same
restriction be applied to John Ray III, the bankruptcy specialist who is
currently the CEO of FTX and has previously criticized
the management of FTX under the ex-crypto billionaire.
However, on
Friday, Judge Kaplan
decided on jailing Bankman-Fried despite objection by his counsel that such a
move will hamper his preparation for his upcoming trial. The lawyers argued
that a lot of discovery documents in the case required a computer and internet
access.
However, in
support of incarceration, US prosecutors demanded that Bankman-Fried be taken
into custody at Putnam jail rather than being imprisoned
at MDC.
According to the prosecutors, the first facility can provide him with a laptop
with internet access to prepare for the trial while the other offers limited
internet facilities access to prisoners.
Bankman-Fried Faces $1B Lawsuit
