Towards the end of December, Sam Bankman-Fried was released from jail on a $250 million bond. The former executive pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges against him.
The prosecutors and Bankman-Fried’s lawyers agreed to the terms of his personal recognizance bond. Simply stated, such a bond is a written commitment from the accused to appear in court when ordered. In return, the person would not be bound to adhere to the full collateral requirements of the bail.
At that time, it was revealed that the bond was secured by equity in his family home in Palo Alto. Additionally, it was backed by the signatures of his parents and two others in possession of “considerable” assets.
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SBF’s bail terms are ludicrous: Securities lawyer
Recently, a securities lawyer and founder of Ludlow Street Advisors, James Murphy, opined that the former FTX executive’s bail terms are “ludicrous.” He reportedly claimed that “there was no real money used for Bankman-Fried’s bond, only the promise of it should he flee the country.” He additionally revealed that it seemed that his parents “don’t have the assets nearly in that amount.”
In an interview with CoinDesk, Murphy said,
“The original bond is a joke.”
The lawyer further clarified that one usually has to put up property assets to back bonds or go to a bail bondsman and give them 10% to 15% of the face amount of the bond. However, in Bankman-Fried’s case, Murphy claimed, “none of that happened.” Additionally, he added that “Sam put down nothing” and “his parents put down no cash.”
However, Anthony Michael Sabino, the co-founder of the law firm Sabino & Sabino P.C., was on a different page. Opining on whether or not the former executive’s bond was fairly issued, he said,
“A bond in the amount of $250 million is a very serious matter… I wouldn’t call it a joke.”
In other related news, a judge of the Southern District of New York recently revealed the names of the two additional bond co-signers. One was Stanford University’s Andreas Paepcke, a senior research scientist. The other was Larry Kramer, former dean of the university’s law school. They agreed to pay $200,000 and $500,000, respectively.
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