It’s good to have friends in high places.
FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried will spend the holidays with his parents in California after a federal judge in Manhattan released him on $250 million bond Thursday.
Bankman-Fried’s pre-trial bond is the largest in history. His bond was secured by his parents’ $4 million home near the Stanford University campus in Palo Alto, California where they are both law professors.
In addition to their Palo Alto home, his parents own a $16 million vacation home in the Bahamas that was purchased for them by their son. They offered to give the deed to the feds to help repay Bankman-Fried’s victims.
Bankman-Fried will be on house arrest at his parents’ home. He can leave for doctors’ appointments and to work out at a nearby gym. He will wear an ankle monitor to track his movements.
Bankman-Fried, 30, was arrested by the Royal Bahamian police at his $30 million penthouse in Nassau, Bahamas on Dec. 12. He faces charges of wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
He was set to testify before Congress the day after his arrest – which angered Republican lawmakers who wanted to hear what he had to say.
He waived his extradition right in a Bahamian court on Wednesday. He initially refused to be extradited to the U.S. to stand trial. However, he changed his mind after spending 10 days in a rat and roach-infested jail in the Bahamas.
Bankman-Fried, who donated tens of millions of dollars in investor funds to Democratic politicians, was flown to New York City from the Bahamas on Wednesday night.
The SEC accused him of swindling investors out of $1.8 billion. He owes a total of $8 billion to investors after his FTX cryptocurrency scam exchange went bankrupt on Nov. 11.
His personal wealth crashed from $16 billion to $100,000 after the FTX collapse.
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In a draft of his statement to Congress, Bankman-Fried said he had $100,000 in his bank account the last time he checked.
He allegedly donated tens of millions of dollars to the Democratic Party since 2020.
Dozens of lawmakers, including California Congresswoman Maxine Waters, are expected to return the illegal donations.
Maxine Waters laughing it up with her good buddy Sam Bankman-Fried. I’d like to see her cell phone records for the past year.#DenOfThieves pic.twitter.com/XaD8nvgFN7
— Glen Taylor (@glnty) December 18, 2022
