FTX executives’ plea deals kept secret to get founder Sam Bankman-Fried back to US
- Prosecutors were afraid that the cryptocurrency entrepreneur would fight extradition from the Bahamas if he found out his associates had turned on him
- The guilty pleas and cooperation deals by Carolyn Ellison and Gary Wang were only revealed when Bankman-Fried was on his way back in the custody of FBI agents
A judge agreed to a request by prosecutors to keep it secret that two of Sam Bankman-Fried’s executive associates had turned against him so that the cryptocurrency entrepreneur would agree not to fight extradition from the Bahamas to the United States, according to transcripts of plea deals made public Friday.
US District Judge Ronnie Abrams said during plea proceedings on Monday in Manhattan that transcripts of the pleas could remain sealed until Bankman-Fried reached New York.
US Attorney Damian Williams announced the guilty pleas and cooperation deals by Carolyn Ellison, 28, and Gary Wang, 29, while Bankman-Fried flew to a Westchester County airport late on Wednesday in the custody of FBI agents.
Bankman-Fried, 30, appeared in Manhattan federal court on Thursday, when he was released on US$250 million bail after an electronic monitoring bracelet was attached to him and he agreed to live with his parents in Palo Alto, California, while awaiting trial.
Ellison, the former chief executive of Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency hedge fund trading firm, Alameda Research, and Wang, a founder of FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange, agreed to testify against Bankman-Fried in connection with their pleas.