A federal judge ruled that FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried will be released on $250 million bail, while he awaits trial for eight federal criminal charges related to alleged fraud.
Recall that Bankman-Fried was extradited from the Bahamas to Westchester County in New York after days of tedious court sittings.
Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang, two of his executives, pleaded guilty to various criminal charges related to fraud at FTX.
The terms of his personal recognizance bond were agreed to by prosecutors and Bankman-Fried’s lawyers. His next hearing will be presided over by Judge Ronnie Abrams, in New York City where he will take his plea and be arraigned.
The bond was secured by equity in his family home, and by his parents’ signature and two other individuals with “considerable” assets.
In addition to the $250 million package, which prosecutors called “the largest-ever pretrial bond,” Bankman-Fried will wear an electronic monitoring bracelet, submit to mental health counseling, and restrict himself to travel within and between the Northern District of California and the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York.
He only spoke when the judge asked him if he understood the consequences of breaking his bail agreement.
“Yes, I do,” he told the judge.
Bankman-Fried was the heart of “a fraud of epic proportions,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicolas Roos told the court. But he voluntarily returned to the United States, has no history of flight and has significantly reduced financial assets, Roos said.
Bankman-Fried had previously claimed that he was down to a mere $100,000, a great fall from a man who was once in charge of a $32 billion crypto empire.
FTX’s collapse is shaking crypto to its core.
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