Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has been denied bail after his Dec. 12 arrest in the Bahamas at the request of the U.S. government.
In a hearing that lasted more than three hours on Dec. 13, Chief Magistrate Joyann Ferguson-Pratt denied Bankman-Fried’s $250,000 bail request, citing a heightened flight risk because of the former billionaire’s access to financial resources.
The judge ordered the 30-year-old to be remanded to Bahamian custody until Feb. 8, 2023.
Bankman-Fried was arrested by Bahamas law enforcement at the request of the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, who notified the Bahamas Attorney General’s Office that it had filed criminal charges against the former crypto billionaire, who once had an estimated net worth of $26 billion….