FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried jailed after bail revoked for tampering with witnesses
Bankman-Fried has been under house arrest at his parent’s home in Palo Alto, California, since last December.
FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried was taken into custody after a federal judge said he would revoke his bail less than two months before his scheduled fraud trial.
US District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan made the order at a hearing in Manhattan on Friday afternoon. Bankman-Fried immediately was placed in handcuffs as his mother cried in the gallery.
Prosecutors had asked the judge to revoke Bankman-Fried’s $250 million bail package after accusing him of leaking documents in an attempt to discredit Caroline Ellison, the former chief executive officer of Alameda Research who will likely be a key government witness.
A gag order is not “a workable solution longer term particularly with someone who has shown a willingness and a desire to risk crossing the line in an effort to get right up to it no matter where the line is,” Kaplan said.
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Bankman-Fried’s lawyers had fought efforts to place the 31-year-old in custody, stating he was exercising his first amendment rights in talking to a New York Times journalist.
When Bankman-Fried’s lawyer, Mark Cohen, argued that his client didn’t intend to tamper with witnesses, Kaplan asked him about a scenario where “two guys walk into a store and say to somebody this is an awful nice store and it would be a shame if it burned to the ground.”
Bankman-Fried has been under house arrest at his parent’s home in Palo Alto, California, since last December. Kaplan refused a request by Bankman-Fried’s lawyer to delay the order.
