Bankman-Fried looked down at his hands as Judge Lewis A. Kaplan explained at length why he believed the California man had repeatedly pushed the boundaries of his US$250 million bail package to a point that Kaplan could no longer ensure the protection of the community, including prosecutors' witnesses, unless the 31-year-old was behind bars.At the conclusion of the hearing, Bankman-Fried took off his suit jacket and tie and turned his watch and other personal belongings over to his lawyers.
The judge said he concluded there was a probability that Bankman-Fried had tried to influence both anticipated trial witnesses "and quite likely others whose names we don't even know" to get them to "back off, to have them hedge their cooperation with the government." Bankman-Fried had been under house arrest at his parents' home in Palo Alto, California, since his December extradition from the Bahamas on charges that he defrauded investors in his businesses and illegally diverted millions of dollars' worth of cryptocurrency from customers using his FTX exchange.
Prosecutors maintained he was trying to sully her reputation and influence prospective jurors who might be summoned for his October trial by sharing deep thoughts about her job and the romantic relationship she had with Bankman-Fried. Bankman-Fried's lawyers argued he probably failed in a quest to defend his reputation because the article cast Ellison in a sympathetic light. They also said prosecutors exaggerated the role Bankman-Fried had in the article.