New York: Samuel Bankman Freud, the founder of the cryptocurrency exchange company FTX, involved in the major cryptocurrency fraud of America, was released by the court on a bail package of 250 million dollars.
Bankman Freud, who was arrested in a fraud case that rocked the cryptocurrency industry for defrauding FTX users and investors for a year, made his first appearance before a Manhattan magistrate judge on Thursday. , where he was released on $250 million bail.
Under the bail package, the 30-year-old former FTX boss will have to remain under house arrest at his parents’ home in California, federal prosecutors said, making the bankman’s bail the largest in U.S. history. is one of the pre-trial bonds’.
Bankman was indicted by federal prosecutors in Manhattan on Dec. 13, alleging that over a year he illegally diverted billions of dollars of FTX customer funds for personal expenses, political donations and real estate purchases. , and he did this through his other crypto company, Alameda Research.
Confession of accomplices
Bankman-Fried’s troubles deepened Wednesday when two of Sam Bankman’s associates, FTX co-founder Gary Wang and former Alameda Research chief executive Carolyn Ellison, pleaded guilty to fraud charges in the fraud investigation. Cooperation is also guaranteed.
Bankman Freud and the Arrest
The former billionaire bankman was arrested on December 12 at his residence in the Bahamas, where he founded FTX. His bail was not opposed because he voluntarily returned to the US to face trial, having previously indicated he would fight extradition.
Thoughts on Sam Bankman-Fried released on bail? pic.twitter.com/NVDvpA3eyz
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) December 22, 2022
Federal prosecutors in New York called the case ‘one of the largest financial frauds in American history’ at a press conference last week. Bankman-Freud did not admit or deny the crime at the court appearance. Earlier, he had denied the allegations against him.
In a statement to the BBC, Bankman said: “I did not deliberately commit fraud, I do not think I committed fraud, I did not want it to happen, I am certainly capable of it. “I wasn’t as much as I thought I was.”
The bail package included surrendering his passport, and that he undergo regular mental health treatment, with his parents also to sign a $250 million bond. His next appearance is scheduled for January 3.
FTX
Samuel Bankman Freud is the son of two Stanford University professors, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Freud, who founded FTX in 2019, known by the acronym SBF. He is considered the hero of the crypto world and the ‘King of Crypto’.
He is also famous in another respect, having helped many companies to get back on their feet and making large donations to charities.
When his company FTX, valued at $30 billion, went bankrupt, it shook the entire crypto industry, causing other crypto companies to go bankrupt, and The value of the cryptocurrency fell further.
When customers and investors learned that the company’s finances were shaky, they began to withdraw their funds in droves, prompting the company to declare bankruptcy in November. Bankman Fried resigned as the company’s chief executive the same day, having previously denied that the bankruptcy was intentional, saying he was focusing on recovering customer funds.
He said in various interviews that the company’s demise was due to management errors rather than deliberate fraud. Legal experts say it’s hard to characterize the money being transferred to Almeida as mismanagement rather than fraud, and testimony from his former colleagues could be devastating to Bankman Freud.
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