Bankman-Fried has signed authorized papers paving the best way for his extradition to the US from the Bahamas.
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has signed authorized papers paving the best way for his extradition from the Bahamas to the USA, the place he faces fraud prices over the cryptocurrency change’s collapse, a Bahamas official has mentioned.
Doan Cleare, the Bahamas’ performing commissioner of Corrections, advised Reuters the paperwork had been signed round midday on Tuesday. A listening to in Bankman-Fried’s case will happen on Wednesday at 11am Jap Normal Time (16:00 GMT), a courtroom official advised Reuters.
Wednesday’s continuing may set the stage for the 30-year-old cryptocurrency mogul to depart the Caribbean nation after a number of days of confusion in regards to the standing of Bankman-Fried’s extradition.
A US-based lawyer for Bankman-Fried didn’t reply to requests for remark. An individual acquainted with the matter mentioned Bankman-Fried intends to consent to extradition. Bankman-Fried has acknowledged risk-management failures at FTX however has mentioned he doesn’t imagine he has felony legal responsibility.
A spokesman for the US legal professional’s workplace in Manhattan declined to remark.
Bankman-Fried was arrested on December 13 within the Bahamas, the place he lives and the place FTX was based mostly, after a grand jury sitting in a Manhattan federal courtroom indicted him for allegedly stealing buyer funds to plug losses at Alameda Analysis, his crypto hedge fund.
He initially advised a Bahamian courtroom he would contest extradition, however Reuters and different retailers reported over the weekend that he would reverse his choice.
Earlier on Tuesday, Bankman-Fried’s native defence lawyer Jerone Roberts declined to remark as he departed the Justice of the Peace Courtroom within the capital Nassau. US embassy officers earlier entered the courthouse, a Reuters witness mentioned, however Bankman-Fried was not seen on Tuesday.
Fall from grace
The arrest capped a shocking fall from grace for Bankman-Fried, who rode a increase within the values of bitcoin and different digital property to turn into a billionaire a number of instances over.
He has been beneath growing scrutiny since early November when clients raced to withdraw funds from FTX amid considerations over the commingling of their property with Alameda.
Damian Williams, the highest federal prosecutor in New York Metropolis, mentioned final week that Bankman-Fried’s actions amounted to “one of many greatest monetary frauds in American historical past”.
The $32bn change declared chapter on November 11, and Bankman-Fried stepped down as CEO that very same day.
He has since been detained on the Bahamas Division of Corrections in Nassau, previously often known as Fox Hill Jail. In a 2021 report, the US state division described circumstances on the facility as “harsh”, citing overcrowding, rodent infestation and prisoners counting on buckets as bogs.
Native authorities say circumstances have since improved.