Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of cryptocurrency exchange giant FTX, was arrested Monday, December 12, in the Bahamas.
The arrest occurs after the US authorities filed criminal charges against him, confirm the large global financial media, including nbc.
In a statement to the press, Attorney General Ryan Pinder confirmed the arrest and said US authorities are expected to request his immediate extradition.
“The Bahamas and the United States have a shared interest in exploring the liability of all individuals who have been associated with FTX and who may have betrayed public trust and violated the law,” Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Davis said in a statement. .
The statement added that while US authorities filed criminal charges, the Bahamas is conducting a regulatory investigation into the sudden collapse of the exchange.
BREAKING: Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has been arrested in the Bahamas, the country’s Attorney-General said in a statement https://t.co/kyDSrVqj8Q pic.twitter.com/muax99dV2P
—Bloomberg (@business) December 12, 2022
Sam Bankman-Fried Arrested Over FTX Collapse
FTX, which filed for bankruptcy in November, is based in The Bahamas.
Bankman-Fried said in different online interviews that he gave these weeks that he “did not try to commit fraud against anyone.”
The debacle of the FTX exchange, one of the most important digital asset platforms on the planet that has left at least a million investors in trouble, consolidated the drop in the price of Bitcoin and other currencies.
As it emerged days after the collapse, Bankman-Fried secretly used $10 billion in funds from users of the platform to prop up its lending business.
Of that total, at least $1 billion is no longer in depositors’ accounts.
In the filing in which FTX sought to join the so-called Chapter 11 bankruptcy-related, John Ray, the exchange’s new CEO, said that some of the corporation’s funds were used to “purchase homes and other personal property for employees and advisors.” ”.
Just a month ago, FTX was one of the greats of the crypto industry, and Bankman-Fried showed his smile in all the interviews for which he was called.
At the beginning of 2022, FTX raised funds for more than US$ 31 billion from Silicon Valley investors, and the CEO himself spoke of his intentions to raise more so that the firm grows more.
Breaking News: Sam Bankman-Fried, the FTX founder, was arrested in the Bahamas after US prosecutors filed criminal charges, the Bahamas government said. https://t.co/Nzw6mDVHXC
—The New York Times (@nytimes) December 12, 2022
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