Bankman-Fried, FTX mastermind accused of fraud, out on $250 million bail

Sam Bankman-Fried, the brain of the cryptocurrency firm FTX, attended the arraignment this Thursday in a federal court in Manhattan (New York).

Prosecutors have imposed draconian conditions of probation for the person responsible for what they consider "a fraud of epic proportions", including the payment of 250 million bail, house arrest at the home of his parents, in Palo Alto (California) , and surveillance of the location, as well as the delivery of the passport.

His lawyers have accepted the terms, according to the Reuters agency, which will apply until the trial is held.

Eventually, the judges could order a psychiatric evaluation of Bankman-Fried and follow-up on his mental health.

Bankman-Fried, 30, arrived in New York on Wednesday night, extradited from Nassau, where the company had its headquarters and where he was arrested on the 12th at the request of the US authorities, who attribute multiple crimes to him that led to to the bankruptcy of his company.

Among the eight charges against him are wire fraud, money laundering and violation of political campaign finance laws, as well as embezzlement.

In parallel, two senior executives at cryptocurrency exchange FTX have been found guilty of charges related to their role in the company's bankruptcy.

US Attorney Damian Williams of the Southern District of New York has announced that Caroline Ellison, former CEO of Alameda Research, and Gary Wang, co-founder of FTX, have pleaded guilty to charges related to their role in the company's bankruptcy. .

Both are cooperating with authorities to provide more details of how the FTX bankruptcy occurred.

Bankman-Fried is increasingly alone, and closer to the evidence.

Ellison and Wang have given a version of what happened that contradicts their defense arguments.

Although the FTX founder has repeatedly said that he was unaware of what was happening at Alameda, the exchange's trading affiliate, documents filed Wednesday by authorities say otherwise.

The US stock market regulator (SEC, in its English acronym) maintains that FTX, under the knowledge of Bankman-Fried, had allowed Alameda to invest "client assets" and that the subsidiary had done so to make much riskier investments than the "Treasury bond".

In fact, the SEC accuses Bankman-Fried of illicitly using FTX client money to fund its crypto empire from the start.

More information

“Monopoly Money”: How Young Crypto King Sam Bankman-Fried Fooled Investors

Prosecutors have urged executives at the firm to follow the lead of Ellison and Wang, and indeed more

are expected to turn up .

Ryan Salame, former co-CEO and

in the company's practice, is one of the company's most valuable informants, because of his closeness to Bankman-Fried and also because of his role in the irregular financing of electoral campaigns, to the benefit in his case of the Republicans.

Some recipients of donations from FTX executives, such as Democratic Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, have returned the money or given it to charitable causes.

Bankman-Fried's legal team had reported Monday that their client was waiving to challenge the extradition.

The businessman declared in the Bahamas that he was waiving that right in part because of his "desire to compensate clients affected" by the bankruptcy of FTX, which filed for bankruptcy on November 11 after a rapid collapse after many users rushed to withdraw their funds amid reports that questioned the solvency of the company.

That same day, Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO of the company.

FTX announced in mid-November that it had decided to file under the United States Bankruptcy Law, known as Chapter 11, to carry out the asset evaluation and liquidation process in an orderly manner for the benefit of the interested parties.

According to a judicial file, FTX owed its 50 largest creditors almost 3,100 million dollars (2,919 million euros).