Sam Bankman-Fried Heads to Prison

Dana Malcolm

Staff Writer

#TheBahamas, August 18, 2023 – Sam Bankman-Fried, Former Cryptocurrency Billionaire and CEO of FTX will await his October 2023 trial date in prison after having his bail revoked by a New York judge.

The revocation came after a request from prosecutors who accused Bankman Fried of witness tampering.  According to US media, the charges stemmed from the crypto king’s publication of a series of letters penned by his former coworker and lover, Caroline Ellison, to the press.

The judge found that this constituted interference with witnesses, as Ellison is scheduled to testify against him come October.  He decided that the accused would not be returning home to his parents’ Paulo Alto residence, where he had been on lockdown since his extradition from The Bahamas.

Instead, Bankman-Fried was taken into custody immediately.  “He has gone up to the line over and over again, and I am going to revoke bail,” the judge is quoted as saying by the New York Times.

Bankman-Fried was arrested in The Bahamas in late 2022 after the stunning collapse of his massive cryptocurrency empire, which cost investors and customers billions.  Subsequent investigations into FTX unraveled a den of questionable business practices prompting federal charges in the US.

He will answer to those charges at his trial, but until then, he will be housed at the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detention Centre, a prison which has reportedly come under scrutiny for cleanliness issues.