Sam Bankman-Fried lost yet another bid to be released from a Brooklyn federal jail days before he goes on trial in one of the biggest white-collar criminal cases in US history.
(Bloomberg) — Sam Bankman-Fried lost yet another bid to be released from a Brooklyn federal jail days before he goes on trial in one of the biggest white-collar criminal cases in US history.
US District Judge Lewis Kaplan on Thursday rejected Bankman-Fried’s request to leave the Metropolitan Detention Center where he’s been for the last six weeks. The judge did make a provision for the founder of the FTX crypo platform to come to court early some days before trial.
Bankman-Fried’s lawyers have argued that the limited access to their client made it difficult to prepare for trial. They complained he’d been limited to a diet of mostly bread and water, plus a little peanut butter, and that he had difficulty obtaining his prescription Adderall to treat his ADHD and depression.
Kaplan also questioned whether Bankman-Fried might be motivated to flee, if he were released during the trial and “things began to look bleak.”
The government claims Bankman-Fried ran a multibillion-dollar yearslong fraud at FTX. He has pleaded not guilty, with the trial scheduled to start Tuesday.
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