Sam Bankman-Fried, who founded and led FTX, arrested in Nassau
Reuters

KEY POINTS

  • Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was placed under house arrest after posting a bail of $250 million
  • The Palo Alto property was purchased by Bankman-Fried's parents in 1992 for $700,000
  • Bankman-Fried would be allowed to leave the residence for exercise and treatment for his mental health and substance abuse

The disgraced owner of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX has been placed under house arrest after he posted a record bail of $250 million.

Following his extradition from the Bahamas, Sam Bankman-Fried, 30, will be staying at his parents' home in Palo Alto, California, as he awaits trial on eight charges of money laundering and fraud.

The residence is on the edge of the Stanford University campus, the New York Post reported. His parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, both Stanford Law professors, purchased it in 1992 for about $700,000.

The family residence is estimated to be worth more than $4 million today.

The home, which is situated on a nearly 1-acre lot, was built in 1917 and is considered part of the Palo Alto Stanford Heritage, dedicated to the preservation of Palo Alto's historic buildings.

The property spans 3,000 square feet and features four bedrooms and three baths.

It also includes a dining room with a white brick fireplace, a renovated kitchen with an expensive island, a study room with built-in bookshelves, a large living room with a fireplace and walls of windows.

It has a gated pool and an expansive lawn outside, with palm trees surrounding the property.

The residence, which was previously owned by novelist David Leavitt, was briefly placed in the rental market in June 2013 for about $14,000 a month. However, it was taken off the rental market in January 2014.

Throughout the duration of his house arrest, the one-time billionaire would be required to wear an electronic ankle monitoring device. Bankman-Fried would also be allowed to leave the residence to work out and seek treatment for mental health and substance abuse.

FTX collapsed in November after a report exposed its close relationship with Alameda Research, a cryptocurrency hedge fund also founded by Bankman-Fried.

Crypto news outlet CoinDesk reported that a significant amount of Alameda Research's assets consist of FTT, a token by the FTX.

The report triggered Binance to sell its entire FTT holdings, amounting to $580 million, and millions of the platform's customers also withdrew their assets.

The situation of Bankman-Fried's FTX got worse when a Wall Street Journal report claimed that the platform lent customer deposits to Alameda Research to help its liabilities.

The collapse of the crypto exchange triggered a string of investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Justice Department and even the House of Representatives.

Bankman-Fried was arrested last week in the Bahamas after New York federal prosecutors filed criminal charges, ABC News reported.

The SEC accused him of defrauding investors out of $1.8 billion.

The charges Bankman-Fried is facing carry a sentence of up to 115 years.

Disgraced cryptocurrency tycoon Sam Bankman-Fried was hit with multiple criminal charges December 13, 2022, accused of committing one of the biggest financial frauds in US history
AFP