FTX Bankman-Fried's Bond Was Co-Signed By Stanford Law Dean Larry Kramer & Paepcke, Press Unsealed Them
The request to keep these secret was spurious - and sleaze. More here.
By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Maxwell book
SDNY COURTHOUSE, Feb 15 – Sam Bankman-Fried of FTX was indicted in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, leading to his arrest in the Bahamas on December 12, and extradition to the US on December 21. He was released on $250 million bond - and reappeared on January 3, see below - with the requirement of co-signers.
But he wanted them secret: "LETTER MOTION addressed to Judge Lewis A. Kaplan from Mark S. Cohen dated January 3, 2023 re: Request to Redact Names and Identifying Information for Certain Bail Sureties . Document filed by Samuel Bankman-Fried. (Cohen, Mark)." Six page letter on Patreon here -
Inner City Press nearly immediately opposed, here. That was Docket Number 31. Even after that, other defendants had their co-signers named in open court, like hedge funder and fraud defendant Neil Phillips, here.
On January 30, Judge Kaplan granted the motion to unseal - but stayed the order until February 7 to allow for an appeal. Inner City Press (Matthew Russell Lee, intervenor pro se) unloaded the order to DocumentCloud here
At 2 pm on February 7, Bankman-Fried's lawyers filed notice of their appeal to the Second Circuit, to (try to) keep the names secret.
But on February 15, Judge Kramer ordered unsealing: "ORDER as to Samuel Bankman-Fried, Zixiao (Gary) Wang, Caroline Ellison. On January 30, 2023, the Court issued an order granting the motions of several news organizations to unseal the names of defendant's non-parental bail sureties. (Dkt 57) Given the novelty of the question presented and the likelihood of appeal, the Court stayed the order "until 5 p.m. on February 7, 2023 and, if a notice of appeal from th[at] order [was] filed by then, until February 14, 2023 at 5 p.m. in order to permit an application for a further stay to be made to the Court of Appeals should any adversely affected party wish to file one." (Dkt 57, at 12.) On February 7, 2023, Defendant timely filed a notice of appeal from the January 30, 2023 Order. As of today, however, no application for a further stay has been made to the Court of Appeals. Accordingly, the Clerk shall file on the unrestricted public record complete copies of the redacted bonds previously docketed as Dkt 55 and 56. SO ORDERED. (Signed by Judge Lewis A. Kaplan on 2/15/2023)."
Inner City Press published that - and then the two names: Larry Kramer, former dean of Stanford Law, and Andreas Paepcke of Stanford InfoLab, photos here and here, more below
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