Sam Bankman-Fried Freed With A Guarantee Of IDR 3.9 Trillion, Lho?

JAKARTA - The bankrupt FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) was arrested by the Bahamas police a few weeks ago. He has also been extradited to his home country, United States. However, there the SBF was released with a ransom of IDR 3.9 trillion.

That happened after he attended the Federal Prosecutor's Office in Manhattan on Thursday, December 22 yesterday. The SBF will be exempted with collateral funds worth US$250 million (equivalent to Rp3.9 trillion). After that he will be under house arrest in Palo Alto. This means that SBF will stay at home with his parents Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, a professor of law at Stanford University.

It was judge Gabriel Gorenstein of the US District Court who approved the agreement that led SBF, a suspect in a crypto fraud case, to leave his company's operations in the Bahamas. He was charged with a number of offenses, including fraud, securities fraud, conspiracy, money laundering, and party campaign financial law violations. The former FTX CEO actually has the potential to be sentenced to 115 years in prison for these charges.

According to a Coingape report, the deal was previously regulated and came after the Bahamas authorities handed over the 30-year-old crypto tycoon to US officials on Wednesday, December 21. Previously, the crypto fraud suspect was arrested at his resort in the Caribbean archipelago, and a request for guarantees for SBF was immediately rejected.

With the latest court decision, the prosecutor explained that the SBF was allowed to leave house arrest if he wanted to carry out a number of activities such as sports, mental health consultations, and drug abuse treatment. Even so, he is not allowed to make transactions above US$1,000. Exceptions of other transactions related to legal bills and related fees.

According to US Assistant Prosecutor Nick Roos, if SBF refuses the permit, it will oppose its release efforts. The reason is, SBF has committed financial crimes and is no longer working for FTX or Alameda.

"If he refuses, we will oppose the release. But his assets have decreased. This is a financial crime and he is no longer working for FTX or Alameda. So the risk to society is marginal consideration. We propose a tight guarantee package," said Nick Roos.

Under the agreement, the FTX founder had to surrender to pre-trial service on Friday, December 23 at 10 a.m. in California's Northern District.

As previously reported, the value of FTX has decreased from US$32 billion to US$1 billion. This decline is the impact of the sale of FTT tokens carried out by investors since learning that their funds were used by FTX to finance the bet of partner company Alameda Research.

Furthermore, the US prosecutor and regulator accused Sam Bankman-Fried of committing a massive fraud since FTX was founded in 2019. He was caught buying real estate in the Bahamas, investing in other companies with customer funds, donating to political parties in the US, and conducting massive marketing campaigns.

Apart from the SBF, two other key actors who helped thwart the fraud were also detained. Both are Alameda Research CEO, Caroline Ellison, and FTX executive Gary Wang. Both pleaded guilty to fraudulent acts.