Cryptocurrency exchange FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was detained again in October ahead of his trial for multiple financial crimes after a federal judge revoked his bail release.
According to the Justice Department, Bankman-Fried's reaching out to former FTX.US general counsel Ryne Miller and using a virtual private network to watch the Super Bowl, in the defense team's words, was enough to warrant a change of bail terms.
But the last straw was Bankman-Fried's sharing with the New York Times a portion of the private diary of Caroline Ellison, former CEO of Alameda Research.
Bankman-Fried's defense team admitted to sharing some pages of the diary with the Times, but her lawyers objected that she was trying to influence a witness by doing so. The defense team also argued that imprisoning Bankman-Fried would make it more difficult to prepare for the trial.
US District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Lewis Kaplan was not convinced by these arguments.
Bankman-Fried's lawyer said he would appeal the bail annulment decision and requested that his client's detention be delayed pending appeal.
The judge denied Bankman-Fried's request that his detention be delayed pending appeal.
*Not investment advice.