The FTX/Sam Bankman-Fried saga continues: the exchange founder submitted another bail request, just two days after his first one was denied, according to two news outlets.
Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of the colossal failure that ended up being the FTX exchange, made a bail application before The Bahamas Supreme Court, Reuters reported on Friday, citing a source familiar with the matter. Per this source, the application was made on Thursday.
Furthermore, the Bahamas’ Eyewitness News also reported this information on Thursday and said that the Supreme Court would hear the bail application on January 17, though it did not cite its sources.
The news outlet further stated that the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Fred Mitchell, said that,
“The FTX issue was a business failure and the jurisdiction where the failure took place has nothing to do with the actual alleged crimes, [and] that businesses in The Bahamas will survive despite the situation.”
Try and try again
The new application comes after a judge rejected Bankman-Fried’s request for bail just two days earlier, on Tuesday.
Therefore, the disgraced founder is currently staying at a Bahamian detention center until February 8, while he awaits a hearing on his extradition to the United States, given that the Chief Magistrate JoyAnn Ferguson-Pratt denied the earlier request for Bankman-Fried to stay at his home.
The experience is unlikely to be a pleasant one, given the reported state of the detention center he is held at. As reported, the conditions at Fox Hill were described by a 2021 US State Department report as “harsh”. Problems include overcrowding, a lack of toilets, and rodents sharing the living space.
Commissioner of Correctional Services, Doan Cleare, however, claimed that the conditions have improved since then, with most facilities having been renovated.
Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas on December 12 after US prosecutors formally charged him with financial crimes. The US Attorney of the Southern District of New York indicted him on eight criminal charges including wire fraud and conspiracy by misusing customer funds. If convicted on all counts, he could face up to 115 years in prison. Separately, the US Securities and Exchange Commission charged Bankman-Fried with “orchestrating a scheme to defraud equity investors in FTX.”
Meanwhile, John Ray III, the new FTX CEO, revealed on Tuesday that the new leadership has “secured more than $1 billion of digital assets to protect against the risk of theft or unauthorized transfers.”
At 10:30 UTC on Friday morning, FTX’s native FTT coin was trading at $1.31, down 3.3% in a day and 4.1% in a week. Overall, it dropped 30% in 30 days and 97% in a year.
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Learn more:
– Sam Bankman-Fried Wants to Start a New Business to Pay Back Victims of FTX Collapse – This is What You Need to Know
– Sam Bankman-Fried Finally Agrees to Testify Before House Committee Next Week – This is What Happened
– Shark Tank Star Kevin O’Leary Slams Binance, Says the Exchange Caused FTX to Collapse on Purpose
– Crypto Companies Enable Money Laundering, Warns Incoming FCA chair – Regulation Coming Soon?
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