Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried Arrested in Bahamas, Being Extradited to US
The former CEO of failed cryptocurrency firm FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, has been arrested in the Bahamas and is set to be extradited per a request by the U.S. Government.
The arrest occurred late Monday with a U.S. criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday morning.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams confirmed that Bankman-Fried had been under criminal investigation by U.S. and Bahamian authorities following the collapse last month of FTX.
The cryptocurrency exchange filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, when it reportedly ran out of funding. Bankman-Fried has remained at his Bahamian luxury compound in Nassau since the company’s failure, according to reports.
“We expect to move to unseal the indictment in the morning and will have more to say at that time,” Williams said.
Bahamian Attorney General Ryan Pinder said the Bahamas would “promptly” extradite Bankman-Fried to the U.S.
One of those involved in FTX, Dan Friedberg, turns out to be an attorney once tied to a poker cheating scandal. Years later an audio tape emerged showing whereby he appeared to be complicit in the scheme. CoinGeek's Steven Stradbrooke had warned of Friedberg's involvement in the collapsed crypto exchange nearly two years prior to FTX going under.
He was added as a defendant last week in an FTX lawsuit recently filed by Gregg Podalsky, Gary Gallant, Skyler Lindeen, Alexander Chernyavsky, and David Nicol. No word yet on whether charges will be filed against Friedman.
While at FTX, Friedman held four job titles over a two year span at FTX, including Head of Compliance.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has also accused Bankman-Fried of “orchestrating a scheme to defraud equity investors”. They accuse him of deliberately misleading customers out of millions of dollars.
“We allege that Sam Bankman-Fried built a house of cards on a foundation of deception while telling investors that it was one of the safest buildings in crypto,” the S.E.C. chair, Gary Gensler, said in a statement.