Bail release of Sam Bankman-Fried: court categorically refuses request

While Sam Bankman-Fried appealed the revocation of his bail outside his trial, this request was refused. What elements did they tip the scales?

Sam Bankman-Fried will not be released on bail

While Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) is still trying at all costs to find alternatives to get out of prison, the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Tuesday refused an appeal for his release on bail.

To put the elements in context, while SBF enjoyed months of conditional release at the family home while awaiting his trial, he repeatedly broke the rules set for him. It was on August 11 that Judge Lewis Kaplan finally considered that these discrepancies merited sending the person concerned back behind bars.

The trial has since taken place, and SBF has been found guilty of 7 counts for a maximum sentence of 110 years of incarceration. Sentencing will be pronounced on March 28, 2024.

Until then, the ex-CEO of FTX will remain locked up, the clerk Catherine O'Hagan Wolfe having indicated that the cancellation of the revocation of a conditional release is done "only in the event of a manifest error", which is not the case here.

To support her remarks, she highlighted the two attempts at witness tampering, namely Ryne Miller, the former general counsel of FTX US as well as Caroline Ellison. Faced with this, SBF attempted to defend itself in the name of freedom of expression by invoking the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, an argument which was refused.

While the person concerned believed that less restrictive alternatives to detention had not been considered, this was also rejected:

“The finding of probable cause to believe that defendant-appellant had committed criminal offenses while on pretrial release raised a rebuttable presumption