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NEW YORK Disgraced cryptocurrency Sam Bankman-Fried had his bail revoked Friday and was remanded to custody ahead of his his multi-billion dollar fraud trial, a federal judge ruled Friday.

Feds say Bankman-Fried, founder of FTX, engaged in witness tampering by leaking to the New York Times private writings of his ex-girlfriend and co-conspirator, Caroline Ellison, asking the judge to revoke his $250 million bail.

Bankman-Frieds lawyers argued they cant prepare his case with him in jail because of the jumble of paperwork Bankman-Fried has to help them through, due to restricted technology access at Brooklyns federal jail.

Kaplan ordered the disgraced crypto entrepreneur back to New York City from house arrest in California, where hes confined to his Stanford Law professor parents house, to hear further arguments on prosecutors motion to revoke his $250 million bond.

Bankman-Frieds court appearance on Friday was the latest pretrial hearings where the fallen billionaire has been admonished for his behavior and communication with the press which the feds say is witness tampering.

Following the leaking of Ellisons notes, Judge Kaplan placed restrictions on media communications by everyone involved in the case in a gag order opposed by the Times and press freedom groups.

Kaplan had already twice admonished Bankman-Fried this year for communicating with a potential witness and using a VPN to watch the Super Bowl violating his strict bail conditions. Federal prosecutors raised the leak at a hearing on July 26.

Bankman-Fried has faced a dramatic fall from grace as the founder of the now-bankrupt FTX. Hes accused of financial fraud comparable to the late notorious Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff. If hes convicted at his trial, set for October, he could face decades in prison.

Ellison, his ex-lover, is one of three of Bankman-Frieds former executives cooperating against him after pleading guilty to fraud charges soon after he was arrested. Shes expected to be a key witness in the trial.

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Bankman-Fried was a star in the cryptocurrency world before it all flamed out with his Bahamas arrest and the implosion of FTX. He ranked 32 on the Forbes rich list in 2021, which described him as the wealthiest self-made newcomer in its history, worth $22.5 billion.

Prosecutors say, the 31-year-old boy wonder from Palo Alto, California, secretly siphoned billions from customers of his globalized crypto exchange in one of the largest financial frauds in U.S. history. According to court papers, many of those victimized and ruined by FTX didnt have much to begin with.

Hes charged with using the stolen deposits to cover debts and risky bets by his hedge fund Alameda Research, run by Ellison, exposing oblivious customers to massive risk. According to the indictment, he also laundered stolen funds on Caribbean real estate and to buy political influence. The routine and brazen misappropriations resulted in an $8 billion hole in FTXs accounts Alameda was unable to repay, the feds say.

A number of A-listers including Gisele Bndchen, Larry David, Tom Brady and Shaquille ONeal endorsed FTX in paid ads claiming it was the safest and easiest way to buy and sell crypto. Now, theyre up against a proposed class-action lawsuit filed last year in Florida that seeks to hold celebrities accountable for giving credibility to Bankman-Frieds dubious platform.

The feds hit Bankman-Fried with more charges months after his arrest, alleging he covertly flooded the U.S. political system with illegal campaign contributions to Democrats and Republicans, totaling tens of millions, to influence crypto legislation in Washington.

Prosecutors recently dropped the campaign contributions charge brought after his extradition to respect a treaty with the Bahamas where FTX was based, and Bankman-Fried was arrested but said Tuesday they plan to incorporate it into the original charges in filings next week.

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Disgraced cryptocurrency exec Sam Bankman-Fried bail revoked, is remanded to custody - Yahoo Finance