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Sam Bankman-Fried appeared in court on December 22, 2022 as he faces charges relating to his $32 billion cryptocurrency exchange scam. The former billionaire appeared before United Staes Magistrate Judge Gabriel W. Gorenstein in shackles. He was in court just days after his former aids accepted plea deals relating to the scam. The next court date is set for January 3, 2023, where Bankman-Fried appear before another judge, United States District Judge Ronnie Abrams, who will take over the case from that point.

The former billionaire has only been in the country for about a week, as he was transported by United States federal agents from a Bahaman prison to New York. The agents transported the disgraced billionaire to his parents home in California, where he will wait during the pretrial and trial periods. After somehow making bond, Bankman-Fried is required to wear electronic monitoring equipment, and one non-family member must sign off on the financial bond.

Attorneys for Bankman-Fried argued that he isn't a flight risk, "Given SBF's substantial ties to the community, it was hard for the court, [under] these circumstances, to find that no condition or combination of conditions would reasonably assure his appearance."

This comes after it was announced that former lead aides for Bankman-Fried reached plea deals with the government over the crypto scam. Former technology chief for FTX, Zixiao "Gary" Wang and Caroline Ellison both reached $250,000 bail grants, with qualifies in place that the two stay in the country. Caroline Ellison was FTX's crypto hedge fund manager and manager of Alameda Research, as well as dating the FTX CEO in past.

Defense counsel does not wish to make any comment.

Bankman-Fried is represented by Mark Cohen and Christian Everdell of Cohen & Gresser LLP.

Wang is represented by Ilan Graff and Alex Miller of Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson LLP.

Ellison is represented by Anjan Sahni, Peter Neiman, Stephanie Avakian and Nick Werle of WilmerHale.

The government is represented by Nicolas Roos and Danielle Sassoon of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York.

The case is U.S. v. Bankman-Fried et al., case number 1:22-cr-00673, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

--Additional reporting by Stewart Bishop. Editing by Alyssa Miller.

Read more at: https://www.law360.com/articles/1560601?copied=1