SBF transferred to custody from house arrest

The fall of cryptocurrency exchange FTX made headlines, and the founder’s $250 million bail was also a source of excitement. But now there is a new twist in the Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) case.

FTX founder transferred from house arrest to detention

The founder of the collapsed cryptocurrency platform FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, was transferred from house arrest to prison. Judge Lewis Kaplan broke bail and ordered the 31-year-old entrepreneur to leave his parents’ home in California to be jailed in the Brooklyn borough of New York instead. The court in New York said that SBF tried to intimidate witnesses.

“He kept overstepping the bounds and that’s why I’m stepping back from bail,” Kaplan announced in the courtroom on Friday (August 11), according to US media reports. Bankman-Fried was handcuffed in the courtroom and taken away. His mother burst into tears in the audience, as reported by various US media . The former billionaire SBF is accused of extensive fraud in connection with FTX. The trial against him is scheduled to start later this year – on October 2 to be more precise.

Has SBF influenced witnesses?

The entrepreneur was arrested on December 12 in the Bahamas at the behest of US judicial authorities. FTX was headquartered there. Before the platform collapsed, it was considered one of the largest trading venues for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Prosecutors asked for the hefty $250 million bail to be released after Bankman-Fried released private notes from former Alameda Research chief Caroline Ellison in an interview. Those notes put her in an unfavorable light. Ellison is expected to appear as a witness for the prosecution.

According to investigators, Bankman-Fried also wrote to FTX’s former general counsel via an encrypted chat app, suggesting that their statements be reconciled. The court saw this as an attempt to influence witnesses and thwart cooperation with the investigators. His lawyers denied these allegations but failed to convince the judge.