var TRINITY_TTS_WP_CONFIG={“cleanText”:”Appeals court denies Sam Bankman-Friedu2019s latest bid for release.u23f8Convicted fraudsteru00a0Sam Bankman-Friedu00a0has been denied his latest request for release while he awaits sentencing, scheduled for March 2024, as his team attempts to appeal his conviction. The appeals court described Bankman-Fried’s release bid as “unpersuasive,” citing the disgracedu00a0FTXu00a0founder’s previous attempts to witness tampering as the main reason for denial.u23f8On Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuitu00a0deniedu00a0the latest attempt for release by Bankman-Fried, who will have to stay in jail as his lawyers try to appeal his case. The disgraced founder and former CEO of FTX was convicted of seven counts of fraud earlier in the month and awaits sentencing, scheduled for March 28, 2024.u23f8″We have reviewed the Defendant-Appellant’s additional arguments and find them unpersuasive,” said Clerk of Court Catherine O’Hagan Wolfe, in a November 21 letter. In justifying its decision, the court pointed to Bankman-Fried’s previous attempts to tamper with two witnesses while on pretrial release.u23f8″There was probable cause to believe that the Defendant-Appellant attempted to tamper with two witnessesu2026 and specifically that he acted with unlawful intent to influence those witnesses,” wrote O’Hagan Wolfe.u23f8″The district court thoroughly considered all of the relevant factors, including the Defendant-Appellant’s course of conduct over time that had required the district court to repeatedly tighten the conditions of release.”u23f8The ‘conduct’ in question refers to when Bankman-Fried was initially put under house arrest at his parents’ residence in Palo Alto, California, in the lead-up to his trial, but in August, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplanu00a0ordered him to be held in custodyu00a0after he repeatedly violated the conditions of his bail. This includedu00a0witness tampering, use of a virtual private network (VPN) in violation of hisu00a0strict digital lockdown, andu00a0leaking the private writingsu00a0of his former girlfriend,u00a0Caroline Ellison, to a New York Times reporter.u23f8Guilty verdictu2014the crimes of Sam Bankman-Friedu23f8After a month-long trial, on November 2, Bankman-Friedu00a0was found guiltyu00a0of seven criminal counts of defrauding customers, lenders, and investors of FTX. The jury took only five hours to come to a unanimous verdict after Bankman-Fried’su00a0shambolic showing in court, where he repeatedly responded to prosecutors’ questions with variations on ‘I don’t remember’ and ‘I don’t recall,’ leading the exasperated Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon to eventually ask “So whatu00a0do youu00a0recall?”u23f8The five-week trial in New York was also notable for damning testimony from Bankman-Fried’s former associates turned state witnesses Nishad Singh and Caroline Ellison.u23f8Singh, FTX’s former head of engineering,u00a0spoke ofu00a0how, under Bankman-Fried’s direction, he personally designed the system that began directing FTX customer deposits into Alameda bank accounts in 2019. Meanwhile, Ellison’su00a0testimony includedu00a0the revelation that, in November 2021, Bankman-Fried directed Alameda staff to pay $150 million to unspecified Chinese government officials to unfreeze around $1 billion inu00a0digital assetsu00a0that were trapped on two China-based exchanges (Huobiu00a0andu00a0OKX).u23f8Bankman-Fried now awaits his March 28 sentencing hearing, where he faces a potential maximum 115-year prison sentence for his multiple convictions.u23f8Followu202fu2019s Crypto Crime Cartelu202fseries, which delves into the stream of groupsu2014fromu202fBitMEXu202ftou202fBinance,u202fBitcoin.com,u202fBlockstream,u202fShapeShift,u202fCoinbase,u202fRipple,u00a0Ethereum,u23f8 FTXu202fandu202fTetheru2014who have co-opted the digital asset revolution and turned the industry into a minefield for nau00efve (and even experienced) players in the market.u23f8″,”headlineText”:”Appeals court denies Sam Bankman-Friedu2019s latest bid for release”,”articleText”:”Convicted fraudsteru00a0Sam Bankman-Friedu00a0has been denied his latest request for release while he awaits sentencing, scheduled for March 2024, as his team attempts to appeal his conviction. The appeals court described Bankman-Fried’s release bid as “unpersuasive,” citing the disgracedu00a0FTXu00a0founder’s previous attempts to witness tampering as the main reason for denial.u23f8On Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuitu00a0deniedu00a0the latest attempt for release by Bankman-Fried, who will have to stay in jail as his lawyers try to appeal his case. The disgraced founder and former CEO of FTX was convicted of seven counts of fraud earlier in the month and awaits sentencing, scheduled for March 28, 2024.u23f8″We have reviewed the Defendant-Appellant’s additional arguments and find them unpersuasive,” said Clerk of Court Catherine O’Hagan Wolfe, in a November 21 letter. In justifying its decision, the court pointed to Bankman-Fried’s previous attempts to tamper with two witnesses while on pretrial release.u23f8″There was probable cause to believe that the Defendant-Appellant attempted to tamper with two witnessesu2026 and specifically that he acted with unlawful intent to influence those witnesses,” wrote O’Hagan Wolfe.u23f8″The district court thoroughly considered all of the relevant factors, including the Defendant-Appellant’s course of conduct over time that had required the district court to repeatedly tighten the conditions of release.”u23f8The ‘conduct’ in question refers to when Bankman-Fried was initially put under house arrest at his parents’ residence in Palo Alto, California, in the lead-up to his trial, but in August, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplanu00a0ordered him to be held in custodyu00a0after he repeatedly violated the conditions of his bail. This includedu00a0witness tampering, use of a virtual private network (VPN) in violation of hisu00a0strict digital lockdown, andu00a0leaking the private writingsu00a0of his former girlfriend,u00a0Caroline Ellison, to a New York Times reporter.u23f8Guilty verdictu2014the crimes of Sam Bankman-Friedu23f8After a month-long trial, on November 2, Bankman-Friedu00a0was found guiltyu00a0of seven criminal counts of defrauding customers, lenders, and investors of FTX. The jury took only five hours to come to a unanimous verdict after Bankman-Fried’su00a0shambolic showing in court, where he repeatedly responded to prosecutors’ questions with variations on ‘I don’t remember’ and ‘I don’t recall,’ leading the exasperated Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon to eventually ask “So whatu00a0do youu00a0recall?”u23f8The five-week trial in New York was also notable for damning testimony from Bankman-Fried’s former associates turned state witnesses Nishad Singh and Caroline Ellison.u23f8Singh, FTX’s former head of engineering,u00a0spoke ofu00a0how, under Bankman-Fried’s direction, he personally designed the system that began directing FTX customer deposits into Alameda bank accounts in 2019. Meanwhile, Ellison’su00a0testimony includedu00a0the revelation that, in November 2021, Bankman-Fried directed Alameda staff to pay $150 million to unspecified Chinese government officials to unfreeze around $1 billion inu00a0digital assetsu00a0that were trapped on two China-based exchanges (Huobiu00a0andu00a0OKX).u23f8Bankman-Fried now awaits his March 28 sentencing hearing, where he faces a potential maximum 115-year prison sentence for his multiple convictions.u23f8Followu202fu2019s Crypto Crime Cartelu202fseries, which delves into the stream of groupsu2014fromu202fBitMEXu202ftou202fBinance,u202fBitcoin.com,u202fBlockstream,u202fShapeShift,u202fCoinbase,u202fRipple,u00a0Ethereum,u23f8 FTXu202fandu202fTetheru2014who have co-opted the digital asset revolution and turned the industry into a minefield for nau00efve (and even experienced) players in the market.u23f8″,”metadata”:{“author”:”James Field”},”pluginVersion”:”5.7.1″}; |
Convicted fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried has been denied his latest request for release while he awaits sentencing, scheduled for March 2024, as his team attempts to appeal his conviction. The appeals court described Bankman-Fried’s release bid as “unpersuasive,” citing the disgraced FTX founder’s previous attempts to witness tampering as the main reason for denial.
On Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit denied the latest attempt for release by Bankman-Fried, who will have to stay in jail as his lawyers try to appeal his case. The disgraced founder and former CEO of FTX was convicted of seven counts of fraud earlier in the month and awaits sentencing, scheduled for March 28, 2024.
“We have reviewed the Defendant-Appellant’s additional arguments and find them unpersuasive,” said Clerk of Court Catherine O’Hagan Wolfe, in a November 21 letter. In justifying its decision, the court pointed to Bankman-Fried’s previous attempts to tamper with two witnesses while on pretrial release.
“There was probable cause to believe that the Defendant-Appellant attempted to tamper with two witnesses… and specifically that he acted with unlawful intent to influence those witnesses,” wrote O’Hagan Wolfe.
“The district court thoroughly considered all of the relevant factors, including the Defendant-Appellant’s course of conduct over time that had required the district court to repeatedly tighten the conditions of release.”
The ‘conduct’ in question refers to when Bankman-Fried was initially put under house arrest at his parents’ residence in Palo Alto, California, in the lead-up to his trial, but in August, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered him to be held in custody after he repeatedly violated the conditions of his bail. This included witness tampering, use of a virtual private network (VPN) in violation of his strict digital lockdown, and leaking the private writings of his former girlfriend, Caroline Ellison, to a New York Times reporter.
Guilty verdict—the crimes of Sam Bankman-Fried
After a month-long trial, on November 2, Bankman-Fried was found guilty of seven criminal counts of defrauding customers, lenders, and investors of FTX. The jury took only five hours to come to a unanimous verdict after Bankman-Fried’s shambolic showing in court, where he repeatedly responded to prosecutors’ questions with variations on ‘I don’t remember’ and ‘I don’t recall,’ leading the exasperated Assistant U.S. Attorney Danielle Sassoon to eventually ask “So what do you recall?”
The five-week trial in New York was also notable for damning testimony from Bankman-Fried’s former associates turned state witnesses Nishad Singh and Caroline Ellison.
Singh, FTX’s former head of engineering, spoke of how, under Bankman-Fried’s direction, he personally designed the system that began directing FTX customer deposits into Alameda bank accounts in 2019. Meanwhile, Ellison’s testimony included the revelation that, in November 2021, Bankman-Fried directed Alameda staff to pay $150 million to unspecified Chinese government officials to unfreeze around $1 billion in digital assets that were trapped on two China-based exchanges (Huobi and OKX).
Bankman-Fried now awaits his March 28 sentencing hearing, where he faces a potential maximum 115-year prison sentence for his multiple convictions.
Follow Crypto Crime Cartel series, which delves into the stream of groups—from BitMEX to Binance, Bitcoin.com, Blockstream, ShapeShift, Coinbase, Ripple, Ethereum,
FTX and Tether—who have co-opted the digital asset revolution and turned the industry into a minefield for naïve (and even experienced) players in the market.
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