Sam Bankman-Fried — one month after being locked up — loses bid for pretrial release

Sam Bankman-Fried on Tuesday lost a bid to be released from jail so he can better prepare for his Oct. 3 trial on fraud charges stemming from t🐓he collapse of his FTX cryptocurrency exchange, a court filing showed.

Bankman-Fried has said the conditions of his confinement at Brooklyn’s Metropolitan Detention Center have made it impossible for him to adequately review prosecutors’ evidence against him and help his lawyers build his defense case.

But US District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan said in a written ruling that Bankman-Fried had not specified which pieces of evidence he had been unable to access. He also said Bankman-Fried had not asked for a trial delay, despite Kaplan’s offer to consider such a request.

Kaplan said he would consider a latꦏer, more deꦰtailed application for release.

Kaplan j🥂ailed the 31-year-old former billiꦇonaire on Aug. 11 after finding that he likely tampered with witnesses at least twice, including by sharing the personal writings of Bankman-Fried’s former romantic partner and colleague Caroline Ellison with a New York Times reporter.

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Ellison, the former chief executive of Bankman-Fried’s Alameda Research hedge fund, has pleaded guilty to fraud charges over the November 2022 collapse of FTX and Alameda and is expected to testify against him at trial.

Bankman-Fried has said he shared the documents to protect his reputation, not to intimidate Ellison. He has separately appealed Kaplan’s detention order. A three-judge panel from the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to 𝄹hear arguments in that case on Sept. 19.

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Federal prosecutors in Manhaಞttan say Bankman-Fried stole billions of dollars in FTX customer funds to plug losses at Alameda, buy real estate, and dona🍸te to political campaigns in a bid to burnish his influence in Washington.

Bankman-Fried has pleaded not guilty. He ha🔥s acknowledged inadequate risk management at FTX, but denied stealing funds.