Sam Bankmanfried, the founder of collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has been arrested in the Bahamas, the country’s attorney general has said.
He is scheduled to appear in a magistrate’s court in the Caribbean nation’s capital, Nassau, on Tuesday.
Police said Mr. Bankman Freud was arrested in the United States and the Bahamas on charges of “financial crimes” against laws.
Last month FTX filed for bankruptcy in the US, leaving many customers unable to withdraw their funds.
According to a court filing last month, FTX owes around $3.1bn (£2.5bn) to its 50 biggest creditors.
It’s unclear how much people who have funds in the exchange will get back at the end of bankruptcy proceedings — though many experts warn it could be a small fraction of what they deposited. .
The FTX exchange allowed users to trade real money for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
Mr Bankman-Fried was once seen as a younger version of legendary US investor Warren Buffett, and as recently as late October his net worth was estimated at more than $15bn.
He became well-known as a political donor in Washington, DC, mostly to Democrat politicians or groups that supported pandemic prevention and better crypto regulation.
The Attorney General of the Bahamas said in a statement that Mr Bankman Fried would be detained “in accordance with our country’s extradition act”.
“Early this evening, Bahamian authorities arrested Samuel Bankman Fried at the request of the US government, based on a sealed indictment filed by the SDNY [Southern District of New York]. ” the US attorney’s office in Manhattan said in a tweet.
Wall Street regulators also said they would take action against Mr Bankman Freud.
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) official Gurbir Grewal said in a statement, “We continue to work with our law enforcement partners to secure the arrest of Mr. Sam Bankman Freud on federal criminal charges in the Bahamas.” Appreciate it.”
“The Securities and Exchange Commission has separately approved charges related to Mr. Bankman Fried’s violations of our securities laws, which will be publicly filed tomorrow in the Southern District of New York,” he added.
Mr. Bankman-Fried was scheduled to testify before the US Congress on Tuesday about the termination of FTX.
However, he will now be unable to testify, according to Congresswoman Maxine Waters, who said in a statement that she was shocked to hear he had been arrested.
A lawyer for Mr Bankman Freud did not immediately respond to JEE News request for comment.
A Statement from the Royal Bahamas Police Force on the arrest of Samual Benjamin Bankman-Fried.
— Latrae L. Rahming (DOC)🇧🇸 (@latraelrahming) December 13, 2022
Police wish to inform that 30-year-old SAMUEL BENJAMIN BANKMAN-FRIED of California, U.S.A, has been arrested. pic.twitter.com/Mr85S2fzcN
