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Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the now-defunct crypto trading agency FTX, will be released on a $250 million bail deal, a New York judge ruled on Thursday.
Under the agreement set by prosecutors, Bankman-Fried will be required to live with his parents in Palo Alto, Calif. under home detention that includes location monitoring. He will also be required to surrender his passport.
Bankman-Fried is an investor in Semafor.
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According to journalists reporting from inside the court room, Bankman-Fried’s parents will put up equity from their home to partially cover the bail.
Judge Gabriel Gorenstein said that Bankman-Fried would require “strict” supervision while living with is parents. He is allowed to leave the home for exercise. Gorenstein also ruled that Bankman-Fried must undergo mental health evaluations while under detention.
Bankman-Fried will be required to check-in with pre-trial services of the Northern California District by 10 a.m. on Friday.
Step Back
Bankman-Fried faces multiple federal criminal charges for defrauding FTX investors. If convicted on all counts, he faces up to 115 years in prison.
On Wednesday night, the FTX founder was extradited to the U.S. from the Bahamas, where he was arrested last week. He had originally planned to contest extradition, but later changed his mind.
Here’s a quick refresher on what led to his downfall:
- In November, Coindesk reported Alameda, a crypto trading firm also owned by Bankman-Fried, held a significant amount of FTX’s exchange token, FTT.
- Binance -- a competing exchange service and prior investor in FTX -- subsequently announced it would be selling its FTT, triggering a crash in FTT’s value and massive withdrawals from FTX.
- FTX soon filed for bankruptcy and Bankman-Fried stepped down as leader.
- He was arrested in the Bahamas on Dec. 12 after the U.S. indicted him on eight criminal charges, including wire fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering.