FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Agrees to Extradition to US: Attorney

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (2nd L) is led away handcuffed by officers of the Royal Bahamas Police Force in Nassau, Bahamas, on Dec. 13, 2022. Mario Duncanson/AFP/Getty Images

Sam Bankman-Fried has agreed to be extradited to the United States, where he faces criminal charges linked to the collapse of his cryptocurrency firm FTX, according to his lawyer.

Attorney Jerone Roberts, who represented Bankman-Fried in a Bahamas Court on Monday, told reporters the extradition paperwork is being prepared by lawyers, The New York Times reported.

“Mr. Bankman-Fried wishes to put the customers right, and that is what has driven his decision,” Roberts told reporters, according to the outlet.

The court appearance comes a week after the 30-year-old was taken into Bahamian custody until an extradition hearing set for Feb. 8, 2023. Bankman-Fried’s attorneys previously reportedly said they intended to fight extradition.

Bahamian authorities arrested Bankman-Fried, who formerly had an estimated net worth of $26 billion, on Dec. 12 at the request of the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. He was denied bail upon arrest.

The former crypto billionaire reportedly arrived at the courthouse on Monday in a van marked “Corrections,” with a SWAT and police escort before he was whisked through a door at the back of the courthouse.

Since 1994, the United States and the Bahamas have had an extradition treaty in force. Bahamas Attorney General Sen. Ryan Pinder had stated that the United States would most likely request Bankman-Fried’s extradition and that he aimed to process it quickly.

According to an unsealed indictment, prosecutors accused Bankman-Fried of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud, commodities fraud, securities fraud, money laundering, and fraud against the United States.

Indictment

Bankman-Fried’s alleged crimes date back to 2019, when he allegedly misappropriated FTX customer funds to pay the expenses and debts of Alameda Research, FTX’s crypto hedge fund, according to the indictment.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has charged Bankman-Fried with co-mingling FTX’s customer funds with his companies’ funds in violation of the Commodities Exchange Act.

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Bankman-Fried with “orchestrating a scheme to defraud investors.”

“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,” SEC Chair Gary Gensler said in a statement.

The SEC said Bankman-Fried had been charged with violating the anti-fraud provisions of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

‘Years-Long Fraud’

According to the SEC, Bankman-Fried allegedly concealed his moving of FTX customer funds to Alameda Research while raising over $1.8 billion from equity investors, including $1.1 billion from around 90 investors based in the United States.

While allegedly touting FTX as a “safe” and “responsible” crypto exchange, he is accused of having “orchestrated a years-long fraud” to conceal the transfer of FTX investors’ funds to Alameda.

It’s also alleged that Bankman-Fried concealed FTX’s exposure to Alameda’s large holdings of FTX-linked tokens, and he’s also accused of “co-mingling” FTX customers’ funds at Alameda to make “undisclosed venture investments, lavish real estate purchases, and large political donations.”

Gurbir Grewal, director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, said in a statement that “FTX operated behind a veneer of legitimacy Mr. Bankman-Fried created.”

Tom Ozimek and Katabella Roberts contributed to this report.