The one who has long been seen as an iconoclastic cryptocurrency genius should escape prison while awaiting trial. A New York federal judge agreed on Thursday, December 22, to release the founder and former boss of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange platform, Sam Bankman-Fried, on payment of a monster bail of 250 million of dollars.
Indicted in particular for fraud and criminal association, “SBF”, his nickname, had been extradited from the Bahamas on Wednesday evening after having given up contesting his surrender to the American authorities. US justice accuses 30-year-old Sam Bankman-Fried of embezzling billions of dollars through a scheme that allowed him to use funds from FTX clients to repay debts and make investments.
On Thursday, Judge Gabriel Gorenstein ruled that the risk that Bankman-Fried would seek to flee was low and that he did not represent a public danger in terms of financial crimes. Pending his judgment, “SBF” will have to live with his parents in California and wear an electronic bracelet.
If he had been kept in detention, Sam Bankman-Fried should have been sent to the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn, decried for its understaffing and questionable management of detainees. Five of the eight charges against him each provide for a maximum sentence of twenty years in prison.