FTX founder conditionally released on $250m bail

• Sam Bankman-Fried can go back to his parents if he pays $250 million bond.
• Mr. Bankman-Fried neither said he was guilty nor said he wasn’t.
• Two of Mr. Bankman-closest Fried’s coworkers admitted to fraud.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the former head of the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX, will have to stay at home while he waits to be tried in the US on charges that he scammed customers and investors.

A US judge said that the former billionaire, who is 30 years old, could go home to his parents if they paid a $250 million (£207 million) bond.

At the hearing, Mr. Bankman-Fried neither said he was guilty nor said he wasn’t.

He has already denied the accusations, which have shaken the whole cryptocurrency industry.

“I didn’t do fraud on purpose. I don’t think I did anything wrong. None of this is what I wanted to happen. I wasn’t even close to as smart as I thought I was, “He told this just before he was arrested on December 12 in the Bahamas, where he lived and where FTX was based.

On Wednesday, two of Mr. Bankman-closest Fried’s coworkers admitted to fraud and are now helping with the investigation.

Federal prosecutors in New York have accused Mr. Bankman-Fried of illegally using customer deposits at FTX to fund his other crypto company, Alameda Research, buy property, and give millions of dollars to political causes.

They called it “one of the biggest financial frauds in US history” at a press conference last week, where they also announced eight criminal charges, including wire fraud, money laundering, and campaign finance violations. Civil charges have also been brought by financial regulators.

Mr. Bankman-Fried was locked up in the Bahamas for nine days while he thought about what to do. On Wednesday, he told the Nassau magistrates court that he would not fight extradition, which could have led to a long legal battle.

At a court hearing on Thursday in New York, Assistant US Attorney Nick Roos said that even though Mr. Bankman-Fried committed a “fraud of epic proportions,” prosecutors would not object to his being released on bail. He said this by pointing out that Mr. Bankman-Fried chose to return to the US on his own and that he had lost a lot of money.

For Mr. Bankman-Fried to be freed, he has to give up his passport and agree to be tracked and held at his parents’ home in California. He also agreed to get regular care for his mental health. Mark Cohen, who works for Mr. Bankman-Fried, said that his parents will co-sign the $250 million bond.

FTX was started in 2019 by Mr. Bankman-Fried, who is the son of two professors at Stanford University.

The curly-haired MIT graduate was known as SBF by his many fans. He was a hero in the crypto world and was called the “King of Crypto” because he saved failing companies and gave a lot of money to charity.

The fall of his company, which was once worth more than $30 billion (£25 billion), has shook up the industry as a whole, leading other companies to file for bankruptcy and crypto values to drop even more.

In November, the company went bankrupt after customers and investors pulled their money out of the company quickly after hearing that its finances were in trouble.

Mr. Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO the same day. He has denied doing anything wrong on purpose in the past and said he is focused on getting customers’ money back.

Mr. Bankman-Fried only spoke once at his arraignment on Thursday. He was asked if he understood the terms of his release and that he could be charged with another crime if he didn’t show up to court.

“Yes, I do,” was his answer.

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