Former FTX boss Sam Bankman-Fried will face home detention while awaiting trial in the US on charges that he defrauded customers and investors of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange.
A US judge said the 30-year-old former billionaire could be released to his parents on a $250m bond.
At the hearing, Bankman-Fried did not admit or deny guilt.
He has previously distanced himself from the charges, which have shaken the entire crypto industry.
“I didn’t knowingly commit fraud. I don’t think I committed fraud. I didn’t want any of this to happen. I was certainly not nearly as competent as I thought I was,” he told the BBC, shortly before his December 12 arrest in the Bahamas, where he lived, and FTX was based.
Two of Bankman-Fried’s closest colleagues pleaded guilty to fraud on Wednesday and are helping with the investigation.
Federal prosecutors in New York have accused Bankman-Fried of unlawfully using customer deposits made at FTX to fund his other crypto firm, Alameda Research, buy property and make millions of dollars in political donations.
In a press conference last week, they described it as “one of the biggest financial frauds in US history” announcing eight criminal charges, including wire fraud, money laundering and campaign finance violations. Financial regulators have also brought civil charges.
Bankman-Fried spent nine days in prison in the Bahamas weighing his choices before telling the Nassau magistrates’ court on Wednesday that he would not fight extradition, which could have sparked a long legal fight.
At Thursday’s court hearing in New York, assistant US Attorney Nick Roos said prosecutors would not oppose releasing Bankman-Fried on bail, despite a “fraud of epic proportions”, pointing to his decision to return to the US voluntarily and his much diminished financial state.
Bankman-Fried’s release requires him to surrender his passport and submit to location monitoring and detention at his parents’ home in California. He also agreed to regular mental health treatment. His parents will co-sign the $250m bond, Bankman-Fried’s attorney, Mark Cohen said. (BBC)
