FTX crypto-mogul Sam Bankman-Fried headed to jail after judge revokes bail

A federal judge on Friday revoked bail for FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who had previously been on house arrest while faces a litany of fraud charges related to the collapse of his cryptocurrency empire last year.

U.S. District Judge Judge Lewis A. Kaplan revoked SBF's bail amid prosecutor assertions that the crypto mogul handed documents to the media to intimidate a witness, the New York Times reported.

Bankman-Fried had been on house arrest as his parents' California home. U.S. authorities arrested him in December after he was extradited from the Bahamas. 

In July of this year, the Department of Justice dropped a campaign finance charge against him to comply with the United States' extradition treaty with the country.

FTX suffered the equivalent of a bank-run in late 2022 when investors simultaneously attempted to withdraw their stakes in the firm, rendering it unable to fully remunerate investors.

The company's new CEO, John J. Ray III, subsequently testified to Congress that the company lacked internal safeguards or oversight, saying "[t]his is really old-fashioned embezzlement... This is just taking money from customers and using it for your own purpose. Not sophisticated at all. Sophisticated perhaps in the way they were able to hide it from people."

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.