Court Delays Decision on Bankman-Fried Appeal to Leave Jail

Two weeks before failed crypto exchange FTX’s ex-CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was due to stand trial, a panel of judges from the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals punted on his request to leave jail. He is being detained before his trial on federal fraud charges.

Both sides’ arguments considered

The panel assured they would take both sides’ arguments under consideration, CoinDesk wrote. At any rate, this postponement is the latest in a string of disappointments for the disgraced former CEO, who has been in jail since the beginning of August.

Prosecutors argue that Bankman-Fried is a threat to witnesses when outside jail, with which the judge presiding over the case agrees. On the other hand, his lawyers argue that he can’t properly prepare his defense when he’s in prison.

SBF was accused of witness tampering

If this appeal is denied, Bankman-Fried probably won’t have a real chance of getting out of jail before early October, when his trial is scheduled to begin.

A court sent him to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn after finding he had violated his bail terms. Allegedly, he tampered with essential witnesses in the federal case against him. One key witness in this regard is Caroline Ellison, ex-CEO of FTX’s research arm Alameda and SBF’s ex-girlfriend.

FTX is suing Bankman-Fried’s parents

In related news, the failed crypto exchange is suing Sam Bankman-Fried’s parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, to claw back millions of dollars, which they “fraudulently transferred and misappropriated” according to a court filing.

The exchange requested that the court award the FTX estate damages, the return of any payment made or property given to the parents by the exchange in the past, and punitive damages resulting from “conscious, willful, wanton, and malicious conduct.”

In July, FTX’s attorneys requested a bankruptcy court in Delaware award recovery of more than $323.5 million from FTX Europe.