Sam Bankman-Fried's parents have already been to the Bahamian prison where he's being held
- Sam Bankman-Fried's parents visited Fox Hill prison in the Bahamas on Thursday, DailyMail.com reported.
- Bankman-Fried was arrested on Monday. US federal prosecutors charged him with eight counts.
Sam Bankman-Fried's parents on Thursday went to the Bahamas prison where their son is in custody, photos published by DailyMail.com show.
Bankman-Fried, the co-founder and former CEO of collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, was arrested in the Bahamas on Monday at the request of US officials. US federal prosecutors charged Bankman-Fried with eight counts including wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Bankman-Fried's lawyers asked a magistrate judge during a Tuesday court hearing in the Bahamas to consider releasing him on a $250,000 bail so he could keep his vegan diet and stick to his medications, but the judge denied Bankman-Fried bail and remanded him to custody in Fox Hill correctional facility in Nassau until February.
His parents, Barbara Fried and Joseph Bankman, both Stanford Law professors, have become entwined in FTX's collapse.
Though not personally named or listed as defendants in the filings, the Securities and Exchange Commission has alleged that Bankman-Fried used commingled funds from his crypto hedge fund Alameda Research to purchase "tens of millions of dollars in Bahamian real estate" for himself, his parents, and other FTX executives.
A spokesperson for the couple told The Wall Street Journal that Bankman had been a paid FTX employee for 11 months, mostly working on charity projects, though they said that Fried hadn't been involved with the company.
Bankman-Fried's parents have stuck close by his side since FTX's collapse. Bankman and Fried attended their son's hearing in Nassau and The Wall Street Journal reported that they've been in the Bahamas for more than a month. The publication reported that they couple has told friends they expect their son's legal bills to wipe them out financially and that Bankman is postponing a class he teaches at Stanford to the spring.
DailyMail.com published photos showing Bankman and Fried arriving at Fox Hill on Thursday. Under COVID-19 protocols, inmates can't have visitors, Bloomberg reported.
DailyMail.com reported that it was unknown whether Bankman and Fried actually visited their son in the facility and that they could have just been dropping off supplies.
Doan Cleare, the acting commissioner of corrections at the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services, previously told Nassau outlet Eye Witness News that officials would likely ask Bankman-Fried's family to bring in vegan food, and a source told Bloomberg that his relatives called the prison on Tuesday to ask if he could receive vegan meals.
Cleare told Eye Witness News that Bankman-Fried was in a "maximum-security sick bay" with five other inmates and was getting "no special treatment," though Bloomberg reported that he had his own room.