Court denies Sam Bankman-Fried’s latest request for release

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit denied the latest attempt for release by Sam Bankman-Fried, and he’ll have to stay in jail as his lawyers try and appeal his case.

“We have reviewed the Defendant-Appellant’s additional arguments and find them unpersuasive,” Clerk of Court Catherine O’Hagan Wolfe wrote in a letter dated Nov. 21. The court pointed out that Bankman-Fried had tried to tamper with two witnesses ahead of his original trial.

“The record shows that the district court thoroughly considered all of the relevant factors, including the Defendant-Appellant’s course of conduct over time that had required the district court to repeatedly tighten the conditions of release,” the court ruled.

After a month-long trial, Bankman-Fried was found guilty on Nov. 2 by a jury on seven criminal counts of defrauding customers, lenders, and investors of FTX. He is awaiting sentencing scheduled for March 28.

The disgraced former CEO was initially put under house arrest at his parents’ residence in Palo Alto, California in January, but in October the court revoked his bail after he leaked Caroline Ellison’s diary to the New York Times, texted witnesses and spoke to the press while awaiting his trial.