Despite causing over a billion dollars to go missing from the cryptocurrency exchange, FTX, which he’s accused of running as his own “personal fiefdom” causing its disastrous crash, Sam Bankman-Fried is free on bail for the holidays. However, it wasn’t cheap. His parents had to put up their house to secure his whopping $250 million bail, and the disgraced crypto bro will be severely limited in his movements and expenditures.
Via The New York Times:
Under the bail arrangement, Mr. Bankman-Fried will live with his parents in Palo Alto, Calif., under strict electronic monitoring, including a bracelet that will be placed on him before he leaves the courthouse.
The $250 million personal recognizance bond — a written promise to appear in court as needed — will be secured by his parents’ interest in their home, the judge said. He was also required to surrender his passport and to receive mental health and substance abuse treatment. Any expenses above $1,000 would require prior approval by the government.
The judge, Gabriel W. Gorenstein, made it a point to warn Bankman-Fried that if he violated the terms of the bail agreement, he’d be thrown in jail and his parents would be forced to pay the entire bond in full. While prosecutors argued that Bankman-Fried is a “flight risk” and that he should be denied bail, the judge disagreed after determining that the disgraced crypto CEOs fortunes have been severely depleted and pretty much everyone knows who he is now.
“It would be very difficult for this defendant to hide without being recognized,” Judge Gorenstein said. “So I believe that the risk of flight is appropriately mitigated.”
In short, he ain’t going nowhere, and man, talk about salt in the wound.
(Via The New York Times)