Judge: Mysterious People Who Bailed Out Disgraced FTX Boss Sam Bankman-Fried Should Be Named

A U.S. judge said on Monday that the names of the two people who bailed disgraced FTX CEO and Democrat super donor Sam Bankman-Fried out of jail should be made public. The move comes after Bankman-Fried’s lawyers tried to keep the names of those who paid his bail anonymous.

While U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan has ruled in favor of disclosing the names, he has put his ruling on hold pending an expected appeal, according to a report by Reuters.

The judge said that the public’s “weak” right to know who bailed the disgraced cryptocurrency exchange founder out of jail outweighed Bankman-Fried’s arguments for confidentiality, as well as the claim that the safety of his guarantors would be in jeopardy.

Judge Kaplan also reportedly said that the names will be confidential until at least February 7, as “the question presented here is novel and an appeal is likely.”

Meanwhile, Bankman-Fried has been at his parents’ house in California, after pleading not guilty to fraud charges. The disgraced FTX founder’s parents, who are both professors at Stanford Law School, co-signed a $250 million bond for their indicted 30-year-old son.

In addition to Bankman-Fried’s parents, his bail was also signed by two other guarantors, whose names have not yet been revealed. They signed a $500,000, as well as a $200,000 bond.

“The amounts of the individual bonds — $500,000 and $200,000 — do not suggest that the non-parental sureties are persons of great wealth or likely to attract attention of the types and volume of that to which defendant’s parents appear to have been subjected,” Judge Kaplan said.

The disgraced FTX founder and Democrat super donor, who pleaded not guilty in a New York court earlier this month, had previously asked the judge to keep his bail guarantors a secret.

A few weeks ago, it was revealed that Bankman-Fried had a “secret” $65 billion back door into FTX clients’ funds, attorneys said, adding that he had ordered a co-founder to insert a secret back door into FTX code to funnel clients’ money into his hedge fund.

With that money, Bankman-Fried “bought planes, houses, threw parties, made political donations,” attorneys claim.

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