FTX collapse: Disgraced crypto tycoon Bankman-Fried arrested in Bahamas

According to a press release from the attorney general's office, he was to be held in custody before an expected request for his extradition by US

Photo: AFP file

By AFP

Published: Tue 13 Dec 2022, 6:10 AM

Last updated: Tue 13 Dec 2022, 6:11 AM

Disgraced cryptocurrency tycoon Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested Monday in the Bahamas at the request of the United States, according to US officials seeking to charge him after the spectacular collapse of his FTX platform.

The arrest comes on the eve of Bankman-Fried's scheduled appearance at a US Congress hearing in which he was to testify under oath about the crypto exchange's overnight demise.

The 30-year-old had in recent weeks defied legal advice and multiplied media appearances offering his version of his company's sudden failure, usually by video link from the Bahamas where his company is headquartered.

"Earlier this evening, Bahamian authorities arrested Samuel Bankman-Fried at the request of the US Government, based on a sealed indictment filed by the southern district of New York," said a tweeted statement from Damian Williams, lead prosecutor for the district.

"We expect to move to unseal the indictment in the morning and will have more to say at that time," he added.

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According to a press release from the attorney general's office in the Bahamas, Bankman-Fried was to be held in custody before an expected request for his extradition by the United States.

The Bahamas prime minister's office shared news of the arrest, as well as a police statement saying Bankman-Fried was arrested in the early evening at his apartment complex in the capital Nassau.

He was taken into custody without incident, the statement said, and was to appear in court in Nassau on Tuesday.

As much as anyone, Bankman-Fried had embodied the apparent emergence of cryptocurrency as an above-board investment and no longer a frowned on get-rich-quick scheme shunned by the banking establishment.

His platform was plugged by celebrities in advertising campaigns and the cyber whiz kid became a regular presence in Washington where he donated tens of millions of dollars in political contributions.

But after reaching a valuation of $32 billion, FTX's implosion was swift following a November 2 report on ties between FTX and Alameda, a trading company also controlled by Bankman-Fried.

The report exposed that Alameda's balance sheet was heavily built on the FTT currency -- a token created by FTX and with no independent value.