The news that two top associates of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried are cooperating with federal prosecutors is a further signal of the strength of the government’s case against the former cryptocurrency mogul, white-collar experts said Thursday.

Bankman-Fried appeared in Manhattan federal court Thursday and was released on a $250 million bond hours after arriving from the Bahamas, where he was arrested at the request of U.S. officials.