Yahoo Finance legal correspondent Alexis Keenan discusses news that disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has been released on $250 million bail and the constraints placed upon him as he awaits criminal proceedings.
Video Transcript
AKIKO FUJITA: Reactions across social media soured on the decision of a Manhattan federal judge after the judge granted bail to FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. Bankman-Fried was released from custody yesterday after appearing in a US Court for the first time on charges accusing him of defrauding customers and investors. So why did the judge agree to free Bankman-Fried from custody?
Let’s bring in Yahoo Finance’s legal reporter Alexis Keenan. Alexis, this is a case that the US attorney over in the Southern District of New York claimed was the biggest financial fraud in American history, one of the biggest. $250 million is nothing to sneeze at, but a lot of people surprised.
ALEXIS KEENAN: Yeah, a lot of people upset with the judge across social media, as you said. So this right to bail, though, it’s really governed by the Constitution’s Eighth Amendment, particularly. Now, it’s not an absolute right, but it does prohibit what’s called excessive bail. And that flows from the fact that in the US, a criminal defendant is presumed innocent until they’re proven guilty in a court of law.
So there are two central questions, two justifications, actually, that a judge is going to look at. And there’s two that, in particular, allow a judge to detain a defendant and one is to keep the public safe. If they’re a threat to the community’s safety, the judge can say you’ve got to stay behind bars. Second is to ensure that the defendant will actually show up in court to face the charges against him or her.
So in Bankman-Fried’s case, like in most white collar cases, the judge said, well, Bankman-Fried is not a danger to the community despite those that argue otherwise, perhaps, financial risks, they say. So this case, really, for the judge yesterday, it turned on flight risk. And to combat flight, the judge can impose financial and other types of consequences. So that’s one reason why you saw the judge agree to the prosecutor’s request of that whopping $250 million bond.