SBF is likely to remain in Bahamian jail till the date of his extradition hearing as the judge denied bail.
Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried will remain in a Bahamian correctional facility till the date of his extradition hearing set for February 8, 2023, per a CNBC report shared by CNBC Squawk Box today.
The ruling comes after the judge refused to grant the crypto founder bail calling the former crypto whiz kid a flight risk. Notably, SBF’s lawyers had requested that the court set bail at $250k, citing his depression and veganism as reasons why he could not remain in custody, per a DailyMail.com report. In the same report, a lawyer tells DailyMail.com that the disgraced crypto founder will still get another chance to fight for bail in the Supreme Court, and he is likely to get it.
Additionally, SBF is planning to fight against extradition to the US, per a CoinDesk report from the scene.
Recall that the erstwhile crypto billionaire was arrested in the Bahamas on Monday at the behest of the US Department of Justice, as highlighted by Kate Rooney in the CNBC report and reported by The Crypto Basic. In the now unsealed filing with the Southern District of New York, the DoJ charged SBF with wire fraud, conspiracies to commit commodities and securities fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and campaign finance violations.
As previously reported, the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission have also filed separate fraud charges. The SEC filing accuses the FTX founder of a years-long scheme of defrauding equity investors, diverting customer funds for personal gain, and expanding his empire while claiming to maintain best practices when raising billions from investors.
Present FTX CEO and restructuring officer John Ray III appears to corroborate this in the House Committee on Financial Services hearing held yesterday, per the CNBC report. Ray described SBF’s activities as “plain old embezzlement.”
“This is really old fashioned and embezzlement,” Ray said in the hearing. “This is just taking money from customers and using it for your own purpose. Not sophisticated at all. This is just plain old embezzlement.”
FTX, the once leading crypto exchange, collapsed in early November after a bank run confirmed reports of illiquidity likely due to fraudulent financial practices.
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