[ad_1]
Disgraced crypto king Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested by authorities in the Bahamas on Monday night after criminal charges were filed by US prosecutors.
According to the Attorney General’s Office in the Bahamas, the 30-year-old was taken into custody after the Bahamian government received formal notification from the United States of the allegations against him.
Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, confirmed Bankman-Fried’s arrest but did not elaborate on what the charges were.
“Earlier this evening, based on a sealed indictment filed by the SDNY, Bahamian authorities arrested Samuel Bankman-Fried at the request of the United States government.” Williams tweeted.
“We expect to unseal the indictment in the morning and will have more to say at that time.”
The shaggy-haired former billionaire from FTX, one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, is under investigation by the Justice Department. imploded and filed for bankruptcy protection On November 11.
Federal prosecutors are reportedly looking into how FTX handled client funds and allegedly transferred hundreds of millions of dollars from the United States to the Bahamas at the time of the bankruptcy filing.
They are also reportedly investigating whether Bankman-Fried manipulated crypto markets by orchestrating trades that led to the collapse of the TerraUSD cryptocurrency earlier this year.
Bankman-Fried, who resigned as CEO of FTX on the day of the bankruptcy filing, has repeatedly denied personal responsibility for the site’s collapse and distanced himself from fraud allegations, insisting he “never attempted to commit fraud.”
News of his arrest came a day before US lawmakers were scheduled to grill Bankman-Fried over FTX’s disastrous collapse on Capitol Hill in Washington DC on Tuesday.
Hours before her arrest, Bankman-Fried said she would testify remotely before the House Financial Services Committee because she was “overbooked” and had security concerns about traveling to DC.
The Bahamian government attorney general’s office said Monday that it is expected to help extradite Bankman-Fried to the United States.
It is not immediately clear how quickly this will happen.
“The Bahamas and the United States have a shared interest in holding accountable all individuals associated with FTX who betrayed the public trust and violated the law,” Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Davis said after the arrests.
“While the United States separately pursues criminal charges against SBF, The Bahamas will continue its own regulatory and criminal investigations into FTX’s collapse, with the continued cooperation of its law enforcement and regulatory partners in the United States and elsewhere.”
[ad_2]