Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, also known as SBF, lost an initial appeal to return to being free on bail prior to his criminal trial.
In a Sept. 6 filing in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Clerk of the Court Catherine O’Hagan Wolfe said a circuit judge had denied a motion from SBF’s legal team requesting his immediate release from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. The former FTX CEO’s lawyers had petitioned the court for temporary release, claiming the current measures aimed at allowing SBF to help prepare for his defense at trial were inadequate due in part to limited internet access.
“The motion for pretrial release is referred to the next available three-judge panel,” said Wolfe. “To the extent Appellant requests his immediate release pending decision by the three-judge panel, that request is denied.”
Following his extradition from the Bahamas and arraignment in the U.S. in December 2022, Bankman-Fried had been free on a $250 million bond and largely confined to his parents’ California home. However, a federal judge revoked his bail on Aug. 11 following allegations of witness intimidation toward former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison, with whom SBF shared a personal and professional relationship.
Bankman-Fried’s lawyers have made several filings following the judge’s decision on bail, requesting SBF have more time to review evidence in the visitor’s room at the Brooklyn jail as well as the New York courthouse cell block attorney room, where he can be allowed access given sufficient notice to the court. The former FTX CEO has roughly four weeks before his Oct. 3 trial is scheduled to begin.
Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield has resigned from the Labour Party.
The 53-year-old MP is the first to jump ship since the general election and in her resignation letter criticised the prime minister for accepting thousands of pounds worth of gifts.
She told Sir Keir Starmer the reason for leaving now is “the programme of policies you seem determined to stick to”, despite their unpopularity with the electorate and MPs.
In her letter she accused the prime minister and his top team of “sleaze, nepotism and apparent avarice” which are “off the scale”.
“I’m so ashamed of what you and your inner circle have done to tarnish and humiliate our once proud party,” she said.
Since December 2019, the prime minister received £107,145 in gifts, benefits, and hospitality – a specific category in parliament’s register of MPs’ interests.
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Ms Duffield, who has previously clashed with the prime minister on gender issues, attacked the government for pursuing “cruel and unnecessary” policies as she resigned the Labour whip.
She criticised the decision to keep the two-child benefit cap and means-test the winter fuel payment, and accused the prime minister of “hypocrisy” over his acceptance of free gifts from donors.
“Since the change of government in July, the revelations of hypocrisy have been staggering and increasingly outrageous,” she said.
“I cannot put into words how angry I and my colleagues are at your total lack of understanding about how you have made us all appear.”
Ms Duffield also mentioned the recent “treatment of Diane Abbott”, who said she thought she had been barred from standing by Labour ahead of the general election, before Sir Keir said she would be allowed to defend her Hackney North and Stoke Newington seat for the party.
Her relationship with the Labour leadership has long been strained and her decision to quit the party comes after seven other Labour MPs were suspended for rebelling by voting for a motion calling for the two-child benefit cap to be abolished.
“Someone with far-above-average wealth choosing to keep the Conservatives’ two-child limit to benefit payments which entrenches children in poverty, while inexplicably accepting expensive personal gifts of designer suits and glasses costing more than most of those people can grasp – this is entirely undeserving of holding the title of Labour prime minister,” she said.
Ms Duffield said she will continue to represent her constituents as an independent MP, “guided by my core Labour values”.