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.
Will the bond be paid with FTX customer funds? (Score:5, Interesting)
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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.
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He can sit in jail until his trial or until his genius brain devises a legal plan to refund his customers
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If it is his money, it would be seized eventually (Score:2)
This sounds like a sneaky way for Gov to seize 500m under the pretense that it is his.
This doesn't hold him.
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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...
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and if we skips remember bounty hunters can do thi (Score:2)
and if we skips remember bounty hunters can do things that cops can't do.
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He's not going to skip bail. Commit suicide though, highly likely. He's a weak person.
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What, does he have dirt on the Clintons?
If he doesn't, he probably worked pretty hard trying to get it. He was employed by Trump, after all, and very well paid for it.
Re:and if we skips remember bounty hunters can do (Score:5, Informative)
Re: and if we skips remember bounty hunters can do (Score:1)
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Was that a 250 million bail, where you typically put down 10% as a bond, or a 250 million dollar bond? The articles use both terms interchangeably.
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I think at this level of wealth, the bonded-bondsmen relationship inverts: Bounty hunters find the guy and then take payment directly to help continue keeping him out of the authorities hands. Just like that Nissan executive that escaped Japan in a box.
the bond man is out the full 250M then he will tha (Score:2)
the bonds man is out the full 250M then he will that + an bribe on top of that
Re:the bond man is out the full 250M then he will (Score:4, Informative)
Bond should equal alleged theft value. (Score:5, Interesting)
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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 he going to run to? (Score:2)
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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
He'll disappear (Score:2)
I suspect that $250M is seat-cushion change for him. He'll quietly disappear.
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That's definitely possible.
Run Forrest! (Score:2)
RUUUN!
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This makes it easier to snuff him out (Score:2)
He knows things that many never want told. I expect he will fall out of a window like Putin's victims.
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Nonsense. If that was the intent, he would have disappeared in the Bahamas, never to be seen again
Mummy and Daddy are clearly worried (Score:2)
They don't want Sam Bankman-Fried to be the next Conrad Black - the first rich person to go to jail in 300 years.
$250m is a lot more than $100k (Score:2)
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?
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where is that $250m coming from?
If only there were a way to find out. Like by reading the article.
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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