Sam Bankman-Fried has been detained by the Bahamas police, and he will appear in court on Tuesday. In a tweet confirming the arrest, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), Damian Williams, stated that the founder of FTX was taken into custody at the request of the US government following the filing of a sealed indictment by the SDNY.
USA Damian Williams: 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. We expect to move to unseal the indictment in the morning and will have more to say at that time.
— US Attorney SDNY (@SDNYnews) December 12, 2022
The allegations include securities fraud, wire fraud, and securities fraud conspiracy, according to a New York Times source. Additionally, Bankman-Fried has been charged separately by the US Securities and Exchange Commission for breaking securities laws. The accusations will be made public tomorrow in the Southern District of New York, according to the agency.
In response to the news, Philip Davis, the prime minister of The Bahamas, said that both his nation and the US share a common interest in guaranteeing an investigation into the events leading up to FTX's demise and the people involved.
However, Davis wants the regulator partners in the US to work with him to ensure that the matter is thoroughly investigated.
Bahamas Might Hand Over SBF to the U.S.
The US government is anticipated to request the extradition of the detained FTX founder, according to Bahamas authorities. Meanwhile, Davis thinks that the Bahamas would continue its judicial and regulatory inquiries into the matter notwithstanding the extradition plan. The culprits, in the Prime Minister's opinion, violated the law in addition to betraying the public's faith in them.
Remember that FTX entered its current predicament at the beginning of last month after Alameda Research's leaked balance statement showed that the company had invested billions of its assets in FTT. This information caused Binance, a well-known cryptocurrency exchange, to start selling off its FTT tokens.
A number of FTX investors also sought to withdraw their assets from the exchange as a result of the development, which forced the company into bankruptcy.
Investigators from all over the world felt the urge to step in and solve the exchange's crash mystery as the crisis' raging effects started to spread across the sphere.
For instance, in the US, the senate opened an inquiry into FTX and first invited SBF to the hearing on December 14. Despite the fact that he didn't reply to the invitation, he made it obvious via Twitter that he wouldn't be there. But because of his detention, he won't be able to attend his hearing before the US House Committee on Financial Services.
On the other hand, although the FTX founder was detained by the Bahamas authorities, it is not yet known when they will turn him over to the US. Attorneys for FTX had already claimed that Bankman-Fried and the Bahamian government were working together to transfer FTX assets into digital wallets under their control.
