Disgraced ‘crypto king’ Sam Bankman-Fried released on $250m bail – the largest in pre-trial history
Disgraced cryptocurrency tycoon Sam Bankman-Fried has been released on a $250m (£208m) bond package as he awaits fraud charges – the largest ever pretrial bond in history.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan have accused him of stealing billions of dollars of customer’s money to plug losses at his hedge fund, Alameda Research.
In the space of a month, Bankman-Fried’s star-studded £21bn cryptocurrency empire collapsed and he has been charged with defrauding investors in the US.
FTX was once one of the world’s biggest digital currency exchanges, valued at $32bn, but ended up filing for bankruptcy protection in just three days.
Bankman-Fried oversaw a spectacular implosion that – almost exactly a month later – saw him arrested in The Bahamas.
He was not asked to enter a plea on Thursday. He has previously acknowledged risk-management failures at FTX, but has said he does not believe he has criminal liability.
His defence lawyer, Mark Cohen, declined to comment after the hearing in the Manhattan federal court.
His arrest in The Bahamas, where he lived and where FTX is based, cemented the one-time billionaire’s spectacular fall from grace.
Cohen said he agreed with prosecutors’ proposed bail conditions.
He noted that his parents – both Stanford Law School professors – would co-sign the bond and post the equity in their
home as assurance for Bankman-Fried’s return to court.
“My client remained where he was, he made no effort to flee,” Cohen said.
Following the agreement of the bond, Bankman-Fried was seen leaving the court and entering a car.
Bankman-Fried leaving court
‘Impossible to hide’
Wearing a grey suit and leg restraints, Bankman-Fried sat flanked by his lawyers and nodded when the judge informed him that if he fails to appear in court, a warrant would be issued for his arrest.
He spoke only when asked by Gorenstein whether he understood the conditions of his release, and that he could be charged with an additional crime if he fails to show up to court.
“Yes I do,” Bankman-Fried replied.
His next court date has been set as 3 January 2023. Bankman-Fried also faces electronic monitoring and a ban on opening new lines of credit or businesses.
He said Bankman-Fried had “achieved sufficient notoriety that it would be impossible” for him to hide without being recognised or engage in further financial schemes.
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FTX arrest: How did we get here?
Down to his ‘last $100,000’
Concerns about the co-mingling of funds between FTX and Bankman-Fried’s hedge fund first became apparent in November and led to a flurry of customer withdrawals.
On 11 November, the former “crypto king”, as many in the media have labelled him, said he was down to his last $100,000.
Just hours after Bankman-Fried’s plane from The Bahamas took off, Damian Williams, the top federal prosecutor in
Manhattan, announced that two of Bankman-Fried’s closest associates – former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang – had pleaded guilty and were cooperating with prosecutors.
When they made America truly great its backbone was forged in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
The steel for 80% of Manhattan’s skyscrapers, many of the US Navy’s battleships, and even the entire San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge, all came from its blast furnaces in the hills north of Philadelphia.
Its mammoth steel plants stretched for almost five miles.
They lie empty and unused, now a huge open-air museum for guided tours led by former plant workers like Don Young.
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The 87-year-old has been married to Barbara for 20 years, but their marriage has been tested in recent months, as have many others in the most divisive presidential election in living memory.
Both Republicans, she is for Donald Trump, he is emphatically not.
Mr Trump, I pointed out, claimed he could make America great again. Did he believe him?
“No, I do not believe him. My wife does,” he said. “I’ve seen the rise of dictators in history.
“As much as I am a studier of the history of industry, I’m also a studier of the history of politics and world politics. And, you know, Mr Trump’s campaign literally, literally mirrors that of Adolf Hitler.”
His wife sees Mr Trump completely differently: “I absolutely do not agree with that. And I’m sorry to hear my husband say this. And I actually believe we have seen what President Trump can do and how our country was when he was in office.”
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Mr Young now offers tours of the former steel plants
Trump ‘is the future for America’, Ms Young says
Their town has recovered from the collapse of Bethlehem Steel. But it’s the state of America that worries Ms Young now.
And it is Mr Trump who can save it, she said.
“He is the future for America,” she said. “I don’t want to see people coming over our border. We’ve had women murdered and raped by illegal immigrants. Who wants their children dead as a result of fentanyl, which comes over the border?”
Trump is ‘going to run America into the ground’
Her husband’s view is diametrically opposed.
“I think he’s going to run America into the ground because he does not observe any of the Democratic norms that his predecessors have,” he said.
“He didn’t observe them when he was in office. And so that’s just a window on what will happen in this coming term.”
Pennsylvania will likely determine presidential election result
Their marriage mirrors the state of play in the place they live in.
Pennsylvania is on a knife edge, say the polls, split right down the middle and the outcome here will likely determine the result on election day in this most important of swing states.
They can agree on one thing. They cannot wait for this election to be over.
Mr Young said their marriage can survive a Trump victory. Ms Young thinks so too.
The closest, nastiest, most divisive presidential election in living memory will be over soon. The bitterness and division that has plagued it less so in this deeply polarised country.
The Los Angeles Dodgers have won baseball’s World Series for the second time in five years but the celebrations were marred by looting and violence.
The Dodgers took the title by beating the New York Yankees 4-1 in the best-of-seven final in New York on Wednesday night, US time.
But soon after the match ended and jubilant Dodgers fans spilled on to the streets to celebrate, there were reports of a bus being set on fire, shops being looted and fireworks thrown at police in scenes of “absolute chaos” in downtown LA.
Los Angeles Dodgers players celebrate winning baseball’s World Series. Pic: AP
At around 10.45pm, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) said it received reports of “looting at several stores in the area of 8th and Broadway”.
Ordering people to “leave the area immediately” on X, the force reposted a video of looters raiding a Nike store where a door had been removed so thieves could get in.
A Dodgers fan celebrates in Los Angeles. Pic: Reuters
Several dispersal orders were issued for different locations in the city, including in streets close to the Dodger Stadium in the Elysian Park area.
A bus was set on fire as part of the disorder.
Eyewitness and LA resident Taylor Rosa, 27, told Sky’s US partner network NBC News it was “absolute chaos”, as people “got out of control and started looting and jumping on top of a bus”.
Among the comments on Instagram were “damn embarrassment” and “they act like the Dodgers lost”.
Multiple arrests were made throughout the night in Echo Park and the downtown area, according to the Los Angeles Scanner account on X.
The LAPD later spoke of a “hostile crowd” and that “various projectiles”, including rocks and bottles, were being thrown at officers.
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Meanwhile, two Yankees fans missed the end of the series after they were banned for interfering with play during the fourth match, the New York team’s only win.
They grappled with the Dodgers’s Mookie Betts as he tried to catch a shot by the fence at the Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night.
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As Betts leapt at the wall and caught the ball, one fan grabbed his glove with both hands and wrenched the ball out, as another grabbed Betts’s other hand.
They were thrown out of the game and banned from the next one.
The Dodgers beat the Yankees 7-6 in game five. Pic: AP
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani with the trophy. Pic: AP
The last time the Dodgers won the title, in 2020, the season was shortened by the COVID pandemic, which prevented them from staging a victory parade.
This year’s parade is to take place on Friday.
Elon Musk has been summoned to an emergency court hearing on Thursday over the $1m prizes he has been awarding registered voters in swing states.
The Tesla and X chief executive has been ordered by a judge in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to address a civil case by the city’s top prosecutor to stop Mr Musk and his political action committee, America PAC, from giving the cash away.
The suit accuses Mr Musk of operating an illegal lottery and trying to influence voters in next week’s presidential election between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.
Mr Musk and his PAC are backing Mr Trump, the Republican nominee.
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The controversial billionaire promised to give $1m (£772,000) each day to resgistered voters in swing states who have signed his online free speech and gun rights petition.
The first $1m was awarded to a man named John Dreher during a campaign event in Pennsylvania on 19 October.
Both Mr Trump and Ms Harris have made repeated visits to the state as they fight for its 19 electoral votes.
Mr Musk is the world’s richest person and is worth $274bn (£210bn), according to Forbes, so the approximate $17m (£13m) he’s vowed to give away is a tiny fraction of his wealth.
The 53-year-old had donated $75m (£58m) to American PAC in the period up to mid-October.
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Documents filed by Philadelphia’s district attorney Larry Krasner also revealed that the lawsuit against Mr Musk had “triggered an avalanche of [social media] posts from Musk’s followers,” many of whom “made antisemitic attacks on Krasner”.
The attorney asked for enhanced security for the hearing, which was originally scheduled for Friday, after users on X had published Mr Krasner’s home address.
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‘Tell him I’ll register, $1 million!’
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America PAC is one of several major political action committees in the US.
Such groups can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money in support of political candidates, on the condition that they do not coordinate with their campaigns or give money to them.
Mr Trump has said he will give Mr Musk a government job if he becomes president again.
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