Sam Bankman-Fried has been sent to jail in Brooklyn.
He’d previously been on bail, on a $250 million bond, and staying at his parents’ home in Paolo Alto in California. But a judge revoked the bail on Friday, finding probable cause that he had tampered with witnesses at least twice.
(New to the story? Check out previous Reuters reporting on who Bankman-Fried is, what went wrong at FTX, why he was arrested, and the charges he faces.)
Prosecutors said that Bankman-Fried had had more than 1,000 phone calls with journalists and that he’d “crossed a line” by sharing his former romantic partner Caroline Ellison’s diary with a New York Times reporter. Ellison is expected to testify against Bankman-Fried, so prosecutors argued that he was trying to harass her and dissuade others from testifying by suggesting that he could share unflattering information about them too. Bankman-Fried’s lawyer said he just wanted to defend his reputation and that he had a right to speak to the press.
Now, Bankman-Fried has to prepare for his Oct. 2 trial from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
Inmates there currently include Juan Orlando Hernandez, the former president of Honduras (who has pleaded not guilty to trafficking charges) and exiled Chinese businessman Guo Wengui (who has pleaded not guilty to fraud). It’s notorious for its poor conditions, with staffing shortages, power outages and reports of maggots in inmates’ food. Lawyers for Ghislaine Maxwell compared the surveillance conditions there to where Hannibal Lecter was incarcerated in The Silence of the Lambs, “despite the absence of a cage and plastic face guard.” Safe to say it’ll be a far cry from the luxury Albany resort where Bankman-Fried used to live in the Bahamas.
On Monday, Bankman-Fried’s lawyers asked the judge to make sure he gets access to his medications in jail: a daily Emsam skin patch for depression and three or four doses a day of Adderall for ADHD.
Then, on Tuesday, prosecutors said Bankman-Fried used money stolen from his customers to make more than $100 million in U.S. political campaign donations before the 2022 U.S. midterm elections. More on that here.
To be sure: Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to fraud charges over FTX’s collapse and has denied stealing funds.
Meanwhile, crypto markets are still sluggish, with bitcoin stuck below $30,000. Traders are still waiting to see if the SEC will approve a spot bitcoin ETF or what’ll become of PayPal’s stablecoin launch. Speaking of which, Democrat Congresswoman Maxine Waters said she was “deeply concerned” about PayPal launching its own stablecoin in the absence of a federal regulatory framework for crypto assets.
