Former FTX chief Sam Bankman-Fried has filed a fresh and new bail application before the Bahamas Supreme Court after a Bahamian magistrate judge denied his first bail request earlier this week. This is as per a source familiar with the latest development in the ongoing case, as reported by the news agency Reuters. The source, who asked to be kept anonymous, said that the new bail application was filed on Thursday (December 15). Bankman-Fried was sent on remand to a Bahamas detention centre, Fox Hill Prison, after his first bail application was denied by Chief Magistrate JoyAnn Ferguson-Pratt.
The applicant had requested to be allowed to remain at home as he awaits his US extradition hearing. Charges of financial crimes have been imposed on him in the United States. The US prosecutors have said that Bankman-Fried tried to defraud FTX’s customers by misappropriating their deposits to pay for the expenses of his crypto hedge fund, Alameda Research LLC.
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According to the Bahamas broadcaster Eyewitness News, the bail application could be heard on January 17 before the Supreme Court. He is currently being held at the Bahamas Department of Corrections, Fox Hill Prison, until his next hearing, which is scheduled to take place on February 8. He will be produced before another Bahamian magistrate judge.
Media reports suggest that he amassed a fortune worth more than $20 billion at the FTX Crypto Exchange, which witnessed an unprecedented collapse.
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He was forced to step down as FTX CEO in November of this year as his crypto exchange firm filed for bankruptcy. This happened following the total collapse and failure of the agency, as traders rushed to withdraw $6 billion from the firm in just 72 hours. According to media reports, he has been accused of secretly using about $10 billion in customer funds to support his trading business. US Attorney Damian Williams has described the fall of FTX as one of the “biggest financial frauds in American history.”
Bankman-Fried had earlier said that he thought he did not have any criminal liability. In November, he said, “I didn’t ever try to commit fraud.” However, in his written testimony, earlier, he said, “I would like to start by formally stating, under oath: I messed up.”
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