Former FTX boss Sam Bankman-Fried in court in New York, United States, January 3, 2023 (AFP/Archives/Timothy A. CLARY)
A federal judge in New York on Friday ordered the detention of the former boss of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange platform, Sam Bankman-Fried, for attempted witness tampering.
“The defendant committed the federal crime of attempted witness tampering,” said Judge Lewis Kaplan of the Southern District of New York, in a decision rendered after a hearing.
“There are no conditions or combinations of conditions of release that could ensure that the accused does not represent a danger to others or to the safety of the community,” he said. “The order for the release of the accused (…) is therefore revoked”, he added.
And he ordered that Sam Bankman-Fried “be taken into custody by the US Marshalls”, the federal security agency in charge of prisoners.
Pending the opening of his trial on October 2 in New York, he had been placed under house arrest with his parents in California after the payment of a bail of 250 million dollars.
Indicted in particular for fraud and criminal association, “SBF” – his nickname – had been extradited at the end of December 2022 from the Bahamas, where the headquarters of FTX was located.
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges against him over the months: eight in January and five in March.
– Unbeknownst –
Mr. Bankman-Fried and other executives are accused of having used the accounts of FTX clients, without their knowledge, to fuel the speculative operations of Alameda, his investment company.
A significant part of the sums supposedly misappropriated were not recovered by the new team responsible for carrying out the orderly liquidation of the company.
The prosecutor’s office was behind the motion to have the conditional release overturned on Friday.
According to the prosecutor, the 31-year-old man notably sent documents to the American daily New York Times in an attempt to influence the testimony of Caroline Ellison, his former girlfriend and a former leader of Alameda.
She was charged in this case and agreed to cooperate with the American authorities.
They also claim that Sam Bankman-Fried made Chinese officials pay at least $40 million in bribes to regain access to frozen assets.
According to a document filed in March, he had those funds transferred in 2021 to get Chinese authorities to get their hands on more than $1 billion worth of cryptocurrency housed in accounts in Alameda’s name.
Then the second largest cryptocurrency exchange, FTX filed for bankruptcy in November, victim of a crisis of confidence and requests for mass withdrawals from customers.
Sam Bankman-Fried was once credited with a personal fortune of $26 billion.
© 2023 AFP
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