Sam Bankman-Fried, who took billions from investors at now-bankrupt FTX to cover his losses at his Alameda Research hedge fund, all while transferring hundreds of millions to liberal politicians, has been ordered to jail.
A federal judge revoked FTX founder Bankman-Fried’s bail on Friday after prosecutors presented evidence that he was harassing a witness in the case.
Bankman-Fried’s political exploits were epic, in that he gave so much money to Democrats that he probably had an impact on state and national elections in 2022.
An AP reporter was in the courtroom on Friday and described the dramatic scene:
“Bankman-Fried looked down at his hands as Judge Lewis A. Kaplan explained at length why he believed the California man had repeatedly pushed the boundaries of his $250 million bail package to a point that Kaplan could no longer ensure the protection of the community, including prosecutors’ witnesses, unless the 31-year-old was behind bars.”
The judge said there was probable cause that Bankman-Fried had tried to “tamper with witnesses at least twice” since his December arrest. In one example, he showed a news reporter some writings of one of his former girlfriends, a key witness. In another instance, he sent an encrypted message to an FTX attorney.
“At the conclusion of the hearing, Bankman-Fried took off his suit jacket and tie and turned his watch and other personal belongings over to his lawyers. The clanging of handcuffs could be heard as his hands were cuffed in front of him. He was then led out of the courtroom by U.S. marshals,” AP reported.
Both Sen. Lisa Murkowski and the Alaska Democratic Party were recipients of the crypto-mogul’s largesse. Rep. Mary Peltola benefited by the pass-through aid from the Alaska Democratic Party.
Prosecutors say FTX CEO Bankman-Fried, with his ill-gotten gains, was the second-largest funder for the Democratic Party, and that he was second only to George Soros in funding liberal candidates and causes.
Current CEO of FTX, John Jay Ray III, who was brought in to clean up the mess, is the former Enron scandal cleanup expert.
“Never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls and such a complete absence of trustworthy financial information as occurred here. From compromised systems integrity and faulty regulatory oversight abroad, to the concentration of control in the hands of a very small group of inexperienced, unsophisticated and potentially compromised individuals, this situation is unprecedented,” Ray wrote to the bankruptcy court earlier this year.
Although Bankman-Fried faces fraud charges, the Department of Justice has dismissed the charges for breaking campaign laws because the U.S. prosecutor had not properly listed those charges on an extradition request when it filed documents with the government of the Bahamas.
