Sam Bankman-Fried Released on $250M Bond and Electronically Monitored

Sam Bankman-Fried has been released on a $250 million bond.

During his first court appearance in the United States on Thursday (Dec. 22), the FTX founder and former CEO was also ordered to live at his parents’ home in California, be electronically monitored and restrict his travel to parts of California and New York, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

His next court hearing is scheduled for Jan. 3, according to the report.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicolas Roos said that he believed the $250 million bond was the largest ever, and that the government agreed to the bail package because Bankman-Fried had consented to his extradition from the Bahamas, the report said.

Magistrate Judge Gabriel Gorenstein in New York City said he agreed to the deal because he believed Bankman-Fried wasn’t a flight risk, didn’t pose a risk to the community and would be easily recognized if he were to try to hide, per the report.

Bankman-Fried’s lawyer, Mark Cohen, said his client agreed to be extradited because he wanted to address the charges against him.

The court’s decision came on the same day that it was reported that two of Bankman-Fried’s top lieutenants — Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder and engineering leader Gary Wang — have pleaded guilty to charges against them and agreed to cooperate with authorities in the FTX crypto case.

As PYMNTS reported Thursday, Ellison and Wang will likely be key witnesses, given their proximity to Bankman-Fried and their knowledge of FTX’s inner workings, admissions of guilt and stated willingness to cooperate with prosecutors.

When announcing the plea agreements, Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said to anyone else who took part in “misconduct” at FTX or Alameda, “now is the time to get ahead of it. We are moving quickly and our patience is not eternal.”

The decision to grant bail also comes one day after Bankman-Fried agreed to the extradition to the U.S. after spending eight days in prison in the Bahamas.

He had been arrested in the Bahamas at the request of the U.S. government, was later hit with eight counts of fraud and conspiracy by U.S. prosecutors and then engaged in an on-again, off-again agreement to be extradited before finally agreeing to extradition and being taken to New York on Wednesday night.