Sam Bankman-Fried Heads Back To Jail After Bail Revoked

FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried is headed back to jail after the judge in the case revoked his bail over alleged witness intimidation, after he showed a journalist from the NY Times private writings from his ex-girlfriend and business partner, Caroline Ellison, and used a VPN in violation of a previous order not to.

Late last month the DOJ sought to have SBF’s bail revoked over the leaked diary, and allegedly used the Signal app to obstruct the investigation, as the app auto-deletes content after a period of time.

John Reed Stark, former US SEC’s Office of Internet Enforcement Chief, suggested that Judge Lewis Kaplan could view SBF’s actions as an effort to improperly influence witnesses and choose to either make further modifications to his bail conditions or revoke his bail entirely. Obviously, Kaplan chose the latter.

“The documents are in part personal and intimate. They are personally oriented, not business oriented. There’s something that someone who has been in a relationship would be unlikely to share with anyone except to hurt and frighten the subject,” said Judge Kaplan, adding “In view of the evidence, my conclusion is that there is probable cause to believe that the defendant has attempted to tamper with witnesses at least twice under Section 1512(b).”

Judge Kaplan: He subscribed from the Bahamas and used a VPN as if he were in the Bahamas when he was in Palo Alto and could have watched it on public TV. It shows the mindset. All things considered I am going to revoke bail.

— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) August 11, 2023

BREAKING: Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) Will Go To Jail – Bail Revoked

SBF will go to jail ahead of his October trial on various fraud and conspiracy charges.

More information to come pic.twitter.com/BPFHsquDmO

— Sulaiman Ahmed (@ShaykhSulaiman) August 11, 2023

Click into this Twitter thread from Inner City Press for the blow-by-blow:

OK – now US v. Bankman-Fried hearing on possible remand of SBF to jail for intimidating witnesses, including leaking Caroline Ellison’s Google Docs (still sealed) to the NYT. Inner City Press moved to unseal https://t.co/wkt4FqxJGD & will live tweet, thread below pic.twitter.com/OXW9z4JWsj

— Inner City Press (@innercitypress) August 11, 2023