Judge Jeanine Pirro reveals Sam Bankman-Fried may never face trial, says 'he's a dirtbag, big time!'
MANHATTAN, NEW YORK CITY: Judge Jeanine Pirro stated that Sam Bankman-Fried may never go to trial because two of his closest associates have already entered guilty pleas. Pirro also referred to the 30-year-old suspected fraudster as a "dirty s**mbag" and said he was worse than Bernie Madoff.
Bankman-Fried, the creator of the defunct cryptocurrency company FTX, appeared in court in Manhattan on Thursday, December 22, and was released on a record-breaking $250 million bail. At his parent's $4 million California house, he will wait out his fraud trial. Nevertheless, Pirro admitted to her Fox News peers during a panel discussion that she didn't believe he would ever be put on trial. Bankman-Fried is charged with leading a multiyear scheme to steal billions of dollars from customers for personal benefit, including the purchase of $256 million worth of real estate in the Bahamas for millions of dollars. He is accused of eight offenses, including allegedly defrauding investors by using their money to create his own cryptocurrency hedge fund, Alameda Research.
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Pirro declared that she thought the amount of evidence against Bankman-Fried would be unassailable due to the guilty pleas of his ex-girlfriend Caroline Ellison, who was the CEO of Alameda Research, a hedge fund owned by Bankman-Fried and Gary Wang, the former chief technology officer of FTX. “The feds clearly wanted to get these two to plead guilty to very similar charges,” Pirro told Fox News, explaining why Bankman-Fried did not appear in court until after Ellison and Wang's pleas were confirmed. “They had to meet the conditions of the plea deal. The conditions of the plea deal are that they testify and cooperate with the feds in incriminating Sam Bankman-Fried. That was done and tied up last night. And as soon as they landed in New York, it was a done deal. What that means is that the chances of this going to trial are slim to none.”
Pirro believes Bankman-Fried wouldn't be able to assert that he "didn't know enough" about the fraud because of Ellison and Wang's arguments. He has maintained that he was unaware of the difficulties facing his company. According to Pirro, she thought his deeds were worse than those of Madoff, who died in jail on April 2021 at the age of 82. The $64.8 billion Ponzi scam that Madoff conducted was the largest in history. “In the end, this guy is worse than Madoff,” said Pirro. “And the reason he is worse than Madoff is that Madoff used an individual's money to pay another individual. This Sam Bankman-Fried used the money for a lavish lifestyle for himself, his family and real estate. He's a dirtbag, big-time.”