Disgraced FTX Founder and Democrat super donor Sam Bankman-Fried, who is set to plead not guilty in a New York court on Tuesday, has reportedly asked the judge to keep his bail guarantors a secret.
SBF’s lawyers argued that there is “no need for public disclosure” of who is paying to keep the crypto kingpin accused of fraud out of jail.
Bankman-Fried’s lawyers argued that there is “no need for public disclosure” of the identities of two people who will help secure the disgraced FTX founder’s bail in order to protect them from potential scrutiny and harassment, according to a report by Bloomberg.
The lawyers filed a letter asking the judge to keep the names confidential on Tuesday. Bankman-Fried’s bail package is $250 million.
“If the two remaining sureties are publicly identified, they will likely be subjected to probing media scrutiny, and potentially targeted for harassment, despite having no substantive connection to the case,” Bankman-Fried’s lawyers said.
“Consequently, the privacy and safety of the sureties are ‘countervailing factors’ that significantly outweigh the presumption of public access to the very limited information at issue,” the lawyers added.
The judge reportedly asked that in addition to Bankman-Fried and his parents, the bond be signed by at least two other people of “considerable means,” one of whom cannot be a relative.