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Former cryptocurrency firm CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, was arrested by authorities in the Bahamas on a sealed indictment after days of speculation.
On Monday evening (Dec. 12), Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested at his apartment by Bahamian police. The arrest took place after the United States Department of Justice filed criminal charges against the former head of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange earlier in the day. U.S. District Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams announced the arrest on Twitter.
“Earlier this evening, Bahamian authorities arrested Samuel Bankman-Fried at the request of the U.S. Government, based on a sealed indictment filed by the SDNY,” Williams wrote. “We expect to move to unseal the indictment in the morning and will have more to say at that time.”
“The Bahamas and the United States have a shared interest in holding accountable all individuals associated with FTX who may have betrayed the public trust and broken the law,” said Philip Davis, the prime minister of the Bahamas, in his statement to the press after the arrest.
Bankman-Fried is currently expected to appear in Magistrate Court on Tuesday (Dec. 13) in Nassau. Prime Minister Davis also said that the island nation will be conducting its own investigation into FTX and that they are prepared to extradite Bankman-Fried “promptly” once the request was filed.
Prosecutors from the Southern District of New York unsealed their indictment against the former CEO, with charges that include conspiring to defraud the United States and violating campaign finance laws among them. This preceded the Securities and Exchange Commission filing its own charges against Bankman-Fried, alleging that he misled investors who had committed $2 billion to the company while taking advantage of its customers.
Bankman-Fried was slated to testify before the House Committee on Financial Services on Tuesday about the calamitous collapse of FTX, but the hearing will continue and feature current CEO, John J. Ray III giving testimony.
