Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 



Forgot your password?
typodupeerror
×
Crime United States

FTX Founder Bankman-Fried To Be Released on a $250 Million Bond Package While He Awaits Trial (reuters.com) 46

Sam Bankman-Fried will be released on a $250 million bond package while he awaits trial on fraud charges related to the collapse of the FTX crypto exchange, a federal magistrate judge said on Thursday. From a report: Prosecutors have accused him of stealing billions of dollars in FTX customer funds to plug losses at his hedge fund, Alameda Research. Nicolas Roos, a prosecutor, told U.S. Magistrate Judge Gabriel Gorenstein that the bail package included home detention and location monitoring. Bankman-Fried will also have to surrender his passport. Bankman-Fried's defense counsel said he agreed with these conditions.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

FTX Founder Bankman-Fried To Be Released on a $250 Million Bond Package While He Awaits Trial

Comments Filter:
  • by tekram ( 8023518 ) on Thursday December 22, 2022 @01:54PM (#63150880)
    Just asking for a friend.
    • Exactly. He's a billionaire because he used customer funds illegally and they're letting him use that money to post bond? That's like charging someone with extorting money and accepting some of those extorted funds a bond out.

    • This sounds like a sneaky way for Gov to seize 500m under the pretense that it is his.

      This doesn't hold him.

    • Sam Bankman-Fried: "I'm broke."
      Court: "We're setting your bail at $250million."
      Sam Bankman-Fried: "No problemo."

      What I don't understand is, with billions obviously tucked away somewhere, why didn't this guy get his ass to a "no extradition treaty" country?
      There's dozens of them, some really nice ones too, with very high standards of living.
      Surely those should appeal to him far more than, say... Leavenworth or Sing Sing.

      Not very bright, this guy...

    • by jythie ( 914043 )
      Apparently not. From what I understand, the guy does not have access to all that much liquid funds right now, around 100k, so that bail is coming from his parents with their home as collateral.
  • and if we skips remember bounty hunters can do things that cops can't do.

  • by Fly Swatter ( 30498 ) on Thursday December 22, 2022 @02:12PM (#63150930) Homepage
    Otherwise, skipping is sort of no big deal since he comes out ahead. (ignoring consequences)
    • Otherwise, skipping is sort of no big deal since he comes out ahead. (ignoring consequences)

      That only works for theft and not for fraud. SBF didn't steal billions of dollars. He's not Scrooge McDucking it in a mansion made of gold and filled with coins. He defrauded people.

      One of the issues with setting stupid unclaimable bonds is they cease being meaningful. For example myself. You can set a $5 million dollar bond, or a $5 billion dollar one. It's literally all the same to me. Heck set it to five hundred *glance left and right * billion! dollars! mwhahahaha. I don't care, you won't even recover t

  • Where is going to run to anyway? He has basically pissed off all the major players in the world. If he disappears look for his body in the concrete of the nearest construction site.
    • by slazzy ( 864185 )
      He could go anywhere that doesn't have good US relations and hire security. Russia, Venezuela to name a few countries. Snowden seems pretty happy with his new wife in Russia.
      • Assuming that no one influential there lost in the crypto collapse, which is unlikely. Where to you think rogue politicians and kleptocrats are stashing their stolen money these days.
      • SBF is jewish, so Russia is completely out of the question. The rest of the countries with no US extradition treaty? They're miserable places to live. US prison would be preferable to most of them.
        • Why downmod? That’s post isnt antisemitic. Fact #1 : SBF is jewish. Fact #2: Russia absolutely does NOT like jews. The chances of SBF getting a warm welcome in Russia is mathematically zero.
    • Where is going to run to anyway? He has basically pissed off all the major players in the world. If he disappears look for his body in the concrete of the nearest construction site.

      He might slip on a cup of tea in a submarine somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean

  • I suspect that $250M is seat-cushion change for him. He'll quietly disappear.

    • I think he'll be a good little boy, stand trial, and talk the whole time about how it was all that horrible unregulated cryptocurrency that let him get away with it. With that in their back pocket, daddy government starts outlawing or regulating into irrelevance non-government issued tokens. As long as he plays ball, he doesn't disappear or get disappeared.
  • RUUUN!

    • That seems like the logical thing to do. He did not have to put up the 250M, and if he is gone how would they collect it? And if he really has access to 250M, I am pretty sure you could arrange to disappear for less than 250M. the whole thing is silly. If the fed's don't think their holding jail is livable, fix the jail. Or have a "rich" jail where the "rich" can go for 10K/night with livable conditions.
  • He knows things that many never want told. I expect he will fall out of a window like Putin's victims.

    • by haruchai ( 17472 )

      Nonsense. If that was the intent, he would have disappeared in the Bahamas, never to be seen again

  • They don't want Sam Bankman-Fried to be the next Conrad Black - the first rich person to go to jail in 300 years.

  • Last I heard he had only $100k in his bank account [fortune.com]. Granted, there's other kinds of assets, but where is that $250m coming from?

    • by jaa101 ( 627731 )

      where is that $250m coming from?

      If only there were a way to find out. Like by reading the article.

      • where is that $250m coming from?

        If only there were a way to find out. Like by reading the article.

        And be left with exactly the same question.

        The bond is meant to ensure that if Bankman-Fried flees, the government could confiscate the family's assets - including their Palo Alto home - up to $250 million. Reuters could not determine the family's total net worth.

        Do they really have a house $250 million? That would apparently give them the 7th most expensive house on earth [wealthygorilla.com].

        I'm sure they pulled some serious cash out of the exchange in shares, but not $250m worth. If they've got $250m in reserves they either

Business is a good game -- lots of competition and minimum of rules. You keep score with money. -- Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari

Working...