A group of leading publications appealed to U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan of the Southern District of New York to disclose information about two individuals who acted as guarantors for Sam Bankman-Fried’s bail (SBF).
The document was filed by the law firm Davis Wright Tremaine on behalf of the Associated Press, Bloomberg, the Financial Times, CNBC, Reuters, Insider, and the publishers of The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. In their view, disclosure serves the public interest, given the severity of the charges against the founder of FTX.
The group’s lawyer emphasized that he is prepared to appear at the hearing to present their position.
On 12 December, Bahamian authorities arrested Sam Bankman-Fried at the request of the U.S. government. As part of the exchange collapse investigation, U.S. prosecutors charged him with eight counts of criminal offenses. SBF has not admitted guilt.
On 23 December, the founder of FTX was released on $250 million bail. The guarantors were his parents and two other individuals. Later, lawyers asked to keep their names private for security reasons. Kaplan granted the motion but acknowledged that the media could challenge the decision.
Earlier in January 2023, the U.S. Department of Justice seized 55,273,469 Robinhood shares in the Bankman-Fried case.
Follow ForkLog’s Bitcoin news on our Telegram — crypto news, prices and analysis.