A US Judge has ordered that Sam Bankman-Fried who was arrested last year on fraud charges, after his cryptocurrency firm collapsed, must await trial while being behind bars. The 31-year-old got handcuffed in court and was taken away while his mother watched all this with tears in her eyes. Judge Lewis Kaplan agreed with the prosecutors who accused Bankman-Fried of trying to influence the witnesses that are expected to testify against him. However, he denied the claims, reported BBC.
Judge Kaplan while speaking in court on Friday said, "There is probable cause to believe that the defendant has attempted to tamper with witnesses at least twice."
The hearing to decide on whether Fried's bail will be revoked came ahead of his trial which is slated to take place in October.
The 31-year-old got arrested in December after he got accused of misuse of the investor and the customers' money invested in his bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX to pay for the property, political donations and plug losses at his hedge fund named Alameda Research.
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Fried denied these claims and was released to his parent's home in California's Palo Alto on a $250 million bond.
Reuters reported that he was forced to hand over his belongings from his pockets and remove his shoelaces, jacket and tie before the US Marshals Service took him away with them on Friday.
The court had already tightened restrictions faced by the accused earlier this year while citing his efforts to contact people involved in the case and also cited his use of a virtual private network.