FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Paves the Way for Extradition | Crypto News

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Bankman-Fried has signed legal documents clearing the way for his extradition to the United States from the Bahamas.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has signed legal documents paving the way for his extradition from the Bahamas to the United States, where he faces fraud charges following the collapse of cryptocurrency exchanges, said a Bahamian official.

Doan Cleare, acting commissioner of corrections in the Bahamas, told Reuters the documents were signed around noon on Tuesday. A hearing in the Bankman-Frieds case will take place at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (1600 GMT) on Wednesday, a court official told Reuters.

Wednesday’s proceedings could set the stage for the 30-year-old cryptocurrency mogul to leave the Caribbean nation after days of confusion over Bankman-Frieds’ extradition status.

A U.S. attorney for Bankman-Fried did not respond to requests for comment. A person familiar with the matter said Bankman-Fried intended to consent to the extradition. Bankman-Fried acknowledged failures in risk management at FTX, but said he did not believe he had criminal liability.

A spokesperson for the US Attorney’s Office in Manhattan declined to comment.

Bankman-Fried was arrested Dec. 13 in the Bahamas, where he lives and where FTX was based, after a grand jury sitting in Manhattan federal court indicted him for allegedly stealing client funds to make up for losses. of Alameda Research, its crypto hedge fund.

He initially told a Bahamian court that he would challenge the extradition, but Reuters and other media reported over the weekend that he would reverse his decision.

Earlier Tuesday, local Bankman-Frieds defense attorney Jerone Roberts declined to comment as he left the Nassau Capital Magistrate’s Court. US Embassy officials entered the courthouse earlier, a Reuters witness said, but Bankman-Fried was not seen on Tuesday.

fall out of favor

The arrest capped an astonishing fall from grace for Bankman-Fried, who rocketed the values ​​of bitcoin and other digital assets to become a multi-billionaire.

It has come under increasing scrutiny since early November, when clients rushed to withdraw funds from FTX amid concerns about their assets being mixed with Alameda.

Damian Williams, New York’s top federal prosecutor, said last week that Bankman-Frieds’ actions constituted one of the biggest financial frauds in American history.

The $32 billion exchange declared bankruptcy on Nov. 11, and Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO the same day.

He has since been held at the Bahamas Corrections Department in Nassau, formerly known as Fox Hill Prison. In a 2021 report, the US State Department described conditions at the facility as harsh, citing overcrowding, rodent infestation, and prisoners relying on buckets as toilets.

Local authorities say conditions have since improved.

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