FTX’s ex-CEO Bankman-Fried makes new bail application after failing in first bid: Source

Washington - Former FTX chief executive Sam Bankman-Fried has made a bail application before the Bahamas Supreme Court, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday, after a magistrate judge on Tuesday rejected his request for bail.

Bankman-Fried

was remanded at a Bahamas detention centre

after chief magistrate JoyAnn Ferguson-Pratt rejected his request to remain at home while he awaits a hearing on his extradition to the United States, where he has been charged with financial crimes.

The source, who asked not to be identified, said the application was made on Thursday.

Bahamas broadcaster Eyewitness News on Thursday reported that the Supreme Court would hear the bail application on Jan 17, without citing sources.

US prosecutors say Bankman-Fried

engaged in a scheme to defraud FTX’s customers

by misappropriating their deposits to pay for expenses and debts and to make investments on behalf of his crypto hedge fund, Alameda Research.

Bankman-Fried amassed a fortune valued at over US$20 billion (S$27 billion) as he rode a cryptocurrency boom to build FTX into one of the world’s largest exchanges before it abruptly collapsed this year. REUTERS