FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried will be released on $250 million bail, judge rules

FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried will be released on $250 million bail, a federal judge in New York ruled Thursday. 

The 30-year-old appeared in court one day following his extradition from the Bahamas, where he was arrested on Dec. 12 following his indictment on a slew of charges related to the collapse of the crypto currency exchange.

The $250 million bail is part of a deal designed by federal prosecutors and Bankman-Fried’s defense attorneys, CNBC reported. His parents, both Stanford Law professors who were present in the courtroom, will put up the equity in their home to partially satisfy bail conditions. 

Judge Gabriel Gorenstein said Bankman-Fried will require “strict” supervision following his release to his parents’ California home.

He must wear an electronic monitoring bracelet, submit to mental health counseling and will be restricted to the Northern District of California, under the bail terms. 

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Bankman-Fried will also be barred from opening any new lines of credit while awaiting trial.

Bankman-Fried was indicted in the Southern District of New York on eight counts, including defrauding FTX lenders and customers, money laundering and campaign finance offenses. He was also charged last week by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission with defrauding investors and enriching his privately held crypto hedge fund Alameda Research.

The alleged fraud against customers began in 2019, the Justice Department has said. Gretchen Lowe, the acting director of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Enforcement Division, has pegged customer losses at more than $8 billion.

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams called Bankman-Fried’s actions with FTX “one of the biggest financial frauds in American history.” 

Bankman-Fried was hailed as a crypto genius with FTX once reportedly valued at a whopping $32 billion, until the exchange collapsed in November. 

Thursday’s development came one day after a federal prosecutor in New York announced two of Bankman-Fried’s top business partners — an FTX co-founder and the former CEO of the hedge fund Alameda Research — pleaded guilty to fraud.

Former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang are cooperating with prosecutors, the U.S. attorney for Southern New York said in a video statement.

Bankman-Fried’s next hearing is set for Jan. 3, 2023.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.