FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried sent to Jail by U.S. Judge for Witness Tampering

FTX founder Bankman-Fried charged with paying $40M bribe

FTX founder Bankman-Fried charged with paying $40M bribe

Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of FTX, had his bail revoked on Friday after a federal judge in New York determined there was reasonable cause to believe he had tried to influence witnesses in his future fraud trial.

The ex-billionaire’s court appearance on Friday is the most recent in a string of pre-trial hearings pertaining to his ongoing interactions with the media, which the Justice Department describes as a “pattern of witness tampering and evading his bail conditions.”

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Bankman-Fried, 31, had been under house arrest at his parents’ home in Palo Alto, California, since he was arrested in December on charges of fraud and market manipulation. But at a hearing on Friday, Judge Lewis A. Kaplan of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York said that Bankman-Fried had repeatedly violated the terms of his bail, including by contacting witnesses and providing them with confidential information.

“The defendant has repeatedly shown that he cannot be trusted to abide by the conditions of his release,” Kaplan said. “He has shown a flagrant disregard for the law and the court’s orders.”

Bankman-Fried’s lawyers argued that he had not actually tampered with any witnesses, and that he was simply trying to gather information to defend himself against the charges. But Kaplan said that the evidence against Bankman-Fried was “clear and convincing.”

“The defendant has engaged in a pattern of behavior that is designed to obstruct justice,” Kaplan said. “He has shown that he is a danger to the integrity of the judicial process.”

The government also stated that previous to the Times article’s publication, Bankman-Fried had over 100 phone calls, several of which lasted for about 20 minutes.