Sam Bankman-Fried reportedly caught napping during flight to NYC court hearing

Sam Bankman-Fried, the fallen cryptocurrency mogul who was worth as much as $17 billion just over a year ago, appeared to have been caught dozing last week during an Alaska Airlines flight to New York, where he is facing federal fraud charges related to the collapse of FTX.

Matthew Liu, the founder of NFT platform Origin Protocol, posted an image on his Twitter account allegedly showing Bankman-Fried sleeping peacefully on the flight from San Francisco to Newark last week.

Liu tweeted that the purported image was taken by a friend who was on the same flight as the disgraced FTX founder, who appeared for a hearing in Manhattan federal court last week.

Bankman-Fried, who was dressed in a navy T-shirt and pants while seated in what appeared to be the front row of the plane, had Apple AirPods in his ears as he allegedly took a nap on board the five-hour flight.

He appeared relaxed as he remains free on $250 million bond while awaiting trial in Lower Manhattan, which is scheduled to begin in the fall.

The indignity of an erstwhile billionaire who has been reduced to taking flights on discount airlines was not lost on social media observers.

“Life can change on you very fast. Just a few months ago this dude was held in high esteem…,” one Twitter user commented.

Another Twitter user wondered what Bankman-Fried was dreaming about during his nap.

Several Twitter commenters joked he was dreaming about his former flame Caroline Ellison, the ex-CEO of Bankman-Fried’s hedge fund Alameda Research.

Bankman-Fried is alleged to have misappropriated customer funds to cover bets made by Alameda.

Ellison and another Bankman-Fried confidante, FTX co-founder Gary Wang, have pleaded guilty and are cooperating with federal prosecutors as they build a case against the former CEO of the crypto exchange.

Bankman-Fried was told in Manhattan federal court last week that he could risk being thrown in jail if he doesn’t curtail his prolific internet habits.

Bankman-Fried landed in hot water after it was learned he was using the encrypted messaging app Signal as well as a virtual private network (VPN) to access the internet and to communicate with an FTX employee.

Judge Lewis Kaplan wondered aloud whether Bankman-Fried should be confined to a jail cell.

The judge said there may be probable cause to believe Bankman-Fried committed a federal felony while on pre-trial release, “namely witness tampering or attempted witness tampering.”

“Why am I being asked to turn him loose in this garden of electronic devices?” Kaplan added.

Federal prosecutors did not ask the judge to remand Bankman-Fried, though they did suggest stricter bail conditions that would ban him from using electronic devices for any other purpose than to prepare for trial.

Bankman-Fried’s use of encryption methods first came to light at the end of January, when prosecutors told Kaplan the shaggy-haired accused fraudster used Signal on Jan. 15 to message the general counsel of his former cryptocurrency exchange platform. 

Additional reporting by Ben Feuerherd