On December 13, 2022, in Nassau, Bahamas, FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (2nd L) was handcuffed and taken away by Royal Bahamian Police officers.
Mario Duncanson | AFP | Getty Images
FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried says he will no longer contest his extradition to the United States, days after being remanded to a Bahamas jail pending a hearing. A person familiar with the matter told CNBC.
The former crypto billionaire will appear in court in the Bahamas this Monday, formally waiving his extradition rights, paving the way for federal officials to secure his return to the U.S.
Extraditions between the Bahamas and the United States are codified by the 1991 treaty. In practice, the process can take months, if not years, to complete due to the numerous opportunities for defendants to appeal. Bankman-Fried’s legal team originally planned to oppose the extradition. A change of heart would significantly advance the timeline for Bankman-Fried’s federal trial.
The 30-year-old MIT graduate was originally scheduled for his next hearing in February 2023.
A representative for Bankman-Fried declined to comment.
Bankman-Fried was indicted in New York federal court on Monday on charges of wire fraud, securities fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and money laundering. If his sentence is handed down, he could spend the rest of his life in prison. The former FTX CEO was simultaneously indicted by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission over similar allegations that he worked to defraud billions of dollars from FTX customers since the exchange was founded in 2019. I’m here.
At the center of Bankman-Fried’s empire was Alameda Research, a cryptocurrency hedge fund that federal regulators claimed used FTX customer funds to engage in trades that lost billions of dollars.
The collapse of FTX Reported by CoinDesk Alameda Research, a Bankman-Fried hedge fund, has revealed a heavy concentration on its self-issued FTT coin, which it uses as collateral for billions of dollars in crypto loans. Rival exchange Binance has announced it will sell its stake in FTT, sparking massive withdrawals. The company froze its assets and declared bankruptcy a few days later. Claims from the SEC and CFTC show that FTX mixed customer funds with his Bankman-Fried cryptocurrency hedge fund, Alameda Research, and lost billions of dollars in customer deposits in the process. I was.
