The two mystery backers of disgraced FTX boss Sam Bankman-Fried who helped guarantee his $250 million bail bond will be revealed, a judge has ruled.
Bankman-Fried, who is charged with eight counts of fraud and conspiracy, was ordered to post largest pre-trial bail amount in US history – 25 times the $10 million posted by notorious Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff.
The bond was signed by his parents and two anonymous co-signatories who agreed to pay $500,000 and $200,000 respectively if the suspect fled.
Sam Bankman-Fried arrives at his lawyer’s office in New York City after his federal Court hearing on January 3
The crypto boss’ attorneys had argued their names should be kept under wraps for the sake of their security after Bankman-Fried’s parents were subjected to a campaign of harassment.
Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, both Stanford law professors, have received physical threats, with a car recently crashing into a barricade near their California home.
While this request was initially granted, US District Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled on Tuesday their names should now be released.
The decision came after a slew of news organizations, including the Associates Press, Bloomberg, CNBC, the Financial Times, argued the public had a right to know who the co-signers were due to Bankman-Fried’s close relationships with leaders of the financial industry, investors, prominent Silicon Valley billionaires and elected representatives.
Bankman-Fried has been living under house arrest at the home of his parents, Stanford law professors Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried (above)
Bankman-Fried’s attorneys have said his parents have faced harassment – including a recent incident where three men menaced security guards near their California home (above)
They will not be published until February 7 – giving lawyers time to appeal the decision.
The judge said the public only had a ‘weak’ right to know the identity of Bankman-Fried’s guarantors – but that it outweighed the defense’s arguments for confidentiality.
He noted that long before bail was posted, the parents had faced ‘intense public scrutiny’ over their relationship with their 30-year-old son, who was once worth $26 billion.
‘The amounts of the individual bonds – $500,000 and $200,000 – do not suggest that the non-parental sureties are persons of great wealth or likely to attract attention of the types and volume of that to which defendant’s parents appear to have been subjected,’ Kaplan wrote.
The signatories of the bond have not paid the amount outright but are liable for it if Bankman-Fried flees the country before his trial.
His parents, for example, agreed their $3.5 million California home could be seized in that eventuality.
To guarantee the bond, Bankman-Fried was required to have at least one signature from somebody not related to him.
Experts had previously told Dailymail.com it was rare for courts to seal the identities of the bond sureties.
Judge Lewis Kaplan agreed earlier this month to keep the names of the bond sureties secret but u-turned on the decision following pressure from media outlets
The only precedent is the case of shamed socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, who shares the same legal team as Bankman-Fried.
In 2020 Maxwell, who was in court over recruiting teenage sex partners for late financier Jeffrey Epstein, successfully managed to seal parts of her proposed bail package from public record.
Maxwell was later denied bail despite her surety bonds.
Former billionaire Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty to allegations he misused FTX customers’ funds.
FTX filed for bankruptcy on November 11 after it struggled to raise enough money to stave off collapse. The crash exposed an $8 billion hole in FTX’s accounts.
It left investors – which included footballer Tom Brady and former white house communications director Anthony Scaramucci – scrambling to recoup their funds.
Bankman-Fried was sensationally arrested in the Bahamas in December by US prosecutors and extradited back to the United States.
He is accused of defrauding investors and diverting billions of dollars in FTX customer money to his hedge fund which he then used as a piggy bank to fund his lavish lifestyle, personal investments and political donations.
If found guilty of all charges, he may be sentenced to life in jail.
He was released from custody in December and is under house arrest at his parents’ property in Palo Alto, California.
When requesting that his addition bond co-signers be kept anonymous, Bankman-Fried’s attorney Mark S. Cohen said in court filings that the parents have become the target of threats and harassment.
Last Thursday, Cohen described a dramatic incident in which ‘a black car drove into the metal barricade set up outside their home’ in Palo Alto.
‘Three men got out of the car,’ Cohen wrote. ‘When the security guard on duty confronted them, the men said something to the effect of: “You won’t be able to keep us out.”
‘The men got back in the car and quickly drove away before the security guard was able to see the license plate.’
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk