Sam Bankman-Fried’s bail backers revealed as former Stanford dean, research scientist

Academics from Stanford Law School and Stanford University are the previously two unknown individuals who signed bonds that allowed the release of FTX crypto exchange founder Sam Bankman-Fried from prison on bail, according to court filings released Wednesday.

By Timmy Shen2023-02-16 4:25 AM UTC

NEW YORK, NY – DECEMBER 22: FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried leaves Manhattan Federal Court after his arraignment and bail hearings on December 22, 2022 in New York City. Bankman-Fried, who was indicted on December 9th and arrested 3 days later by Bahamas law enforcement at the request of U.S. prosecutors, consented to extradition to the U.S. where he is facing eight criminal counts of fraud, conspiracy and money-laundering offenses which includes making illegal political contributions. He is potentially facing life in prison if convicted. He was released on $250 million bond with the bail package requiring him to stay with his parents in California. (Photo by David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)

Fast facts

Larry Kramer, the 2004-2012 dean of Stanford Law School, and Andreas Paepcke, a computer science research engineer at Stanford University, were both identified in the filing.
Bankman-Fried, who was arrested and charged with fraud and other crimes, was released in December on a bail package that included a US$250 million personal recognizance bond signed by Bankman-Fried and his parents. Two separate bonds were signed by two non-parent sureties — now revealed to be Kramer and Paepcke.
Court documents released Wednesday by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan showed that Kramer put up US$500,000 in an unsecured bond, and Paepcke signed onto US$200,000.
Kramer told Forkast in an email that he supported the bail because he’s close friends with Bankman-Fried’s parents.
“Joe Bankman and Barbara Fried have been close friends of my wife and I since the mid-1990s. During the past two years, while my family faced a harrowing battle with cancer, they have been the truest of friends … In turn, we have sought to support them as they face their own crisis,” Kramer said.
Kramer said he acted in a personal capacity and has no business dealings or other interests in the matter, other than to support a family he regards as friends. He added that he held no position on the legal issues of the case itself as that will be for courts to decide.
The identity disclosure came after Judge Kaplan last month granted several motions filed by news organizations to reveal the identities of the two non-parent sponsors of the bail. Kaplan wrote in the January ruling that the information sought — names of bail sureties — traditionally is regarded as public information.