No Bail for FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried

Former CEO and FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried will be held in custody as he awaits extradition to the United States.

Magistrate Joyann Ferguson Pratt denied his lawyers’ plea for bail citing the crypto wunderkind is a flight risk and will be held in Bahamian custody until February 8, 2023.

Bankman-Fried’s lawyers argued that he should be released on $250,000 bail while insisting that he needed to regularly take his medications for allergies and depression. However, prosecutors stood their ground and said that bail should not be granted since it goes against the Bahamas’ treaty with the US, which requires defendants to be held, pending extradition proceedings.

The judge obliged and ordered the 30-year-old held until his hearing next year.

This comes after lawyers and prosecutors spent the entire day debating the request for bail.

It is reported his lawyers will fight the extradition order.

On Tuesday afternoon, New York prosecutors announced eight charges against him, which include conspiracy, fraud, money laundering, and political campaign violations.

Bankman-Fried was arrested on Monday evening by Bahamas police at the US government’s request and documents were unsealed today in New York, revealing the charges against the crypto poster boy.

Since the implosion of his exchange, FTX, he has been scrutinized as millions of people seek the billions of dollars invested but purportedly lost on his platform.

US prosecutors said they uncovered that Bankman-Fried was funneling customers’ money to his trading company, Alameda Research, to fund his luxurious life in the Bahamas in an embezzlement scheme.

He faces life in prison if he is convicted.