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The grim situations FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is encountering within the Bahamas jail the place he’s being held may change his angle on extradition to face fraud charges in the U.S.
At Bankman-Fried’s first courtroom look Tuesday, his lawyer mentioned he deliberate to battle extradition.
However that was earlier than the choose denied Bankman-Fried’s request to be launched on $250,000 money bail and an ankle monitor to trace his actions. The choose ordered the previous chief government of the collapsed cryptocurrency alternate taken into custody on the Bahamas Division of Correctional Companies facility, generally referred to as Fox Hill.
Regardless of its bucolic title, Fox Hill is thought for overcrowding, poor vitamin, insufficient sanitation and substandard medical care, based on a 2020 U.S. State Department report. The report described rat and maggot infestation in addition to tiny cells with solely buckets for bathrooms.
Individuals accustomed to the matter mentioned Bankman-Fried, 30, has his personal room within the medical block of Fox Hill’s most safety unit, the place he’ll stay till his Feb. 8 extradition listening to.
One particular person mentioned Bankman-Fried’s family known as the jail Tuesday night time to ask whether or not vegan meals may very well be delivered to him. He can’t obtain guests resulting from COVID restrictions on the jail.
It’s a far cry from the luxurious penthouse in Nassau’s unique Albany group from which Bankman-Fried ran FTX and, based on federal prosecutors in New York, orchestrated a years-long fraud that diverted billions of buyer funds from the cryptocurrency alternate to non-public use and dangerous bets by FTX’s sister buying and selling agency, Alameda Analysis.
The sumptous 12,000-square-foot, five-bedroom apartment was reportedly put up for sale at $39.5 million on Nov. 11, the day FTX filed for bankruptcy protection after a cryptocurrency equal of a run on the financial institution.
Legal professionals accustomed to the extradition course of mentioned Bankman-Fried’s failure to win launch on bail may change his calculations about returning to the U.S., particularly as a result of extradition battles can drag on for months and even years.
“It might be powerful for SBF to face up to that for any time frame,” mentioned Bruce Zagaris, a Washington, D.C., lawyer. “He received’t get any particular therapy from the inmates and the guards, like he did on the Albany condominium. Ultimately, he’s going to say, ‘I don’t wish to spend one other few years at this place. What are my alternate options?’”
Houston lawyer Douglas McNabb agreed. Dropping a bail listening to typically “causes a defendant to rethink whether or not they wish to attraction the case or not as a result of they don’t wish to be sitting in a Bahamian jail,” he mentioned. “That’s a call he’s going to should make.”
The fees towards Bankman-Fried embrace wire fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and a number of other different counts for allegedly misappropriating billions of {dollars} in FTX prospects funds for private use and dangerous bets by Alameda Analysis.
Damian Williams, the U.S. legal professional for Manhattan, on Tuesday known as the case “one of many largest monetary frauds in American historical past” and mentioned the investigation of the alleged scheme is “very a lot ongoing.”
In quite a few media interviews, Bankman-Fried has denied knowingly committing fraud i. Mark Cohen, a New York lawyer for the FTX founder, mentioned in an announcement Tuesday that his consumer is “reviewing the costs together with his authorized workforce and contemplating all of his authorized choices.”
Czech-born businessman Viktor Kozeny, who efficiently fought extradition from the Bahamas on U.S. bribery prices, was imprisoned for greater than a 12 months at Fox Hill earlier than a choose granted him bail.
The Bahamian jail “has its legacy and popularity of breaking even the hardest of males,” his lawyer mentioned on the time.
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