It’s an arrest of particular interest to the United States. Sam Bankman-Fried, the fallen cryptocurrency star and former head of the FTX platform, was arrested on Monday in the Bahamas at the request of US authorities, announced New York prosecutor Damian Williams. “We will have more information to provide about the allegation” this Tuesday morning, he said.
“SBF” had been making headlines for a month, despite the risk of a fraud lawsuit following the spectacular implosion of the $32 billion-valued company earlier this year. The United States has “filed a complaint” against the 30-year-old and “probably will seek his extradition,” Bahamian Attorney General Ryan Pinder explained.
The Bahamas to conduct its own ‘criminal investigation’
Both countries “have an interest in holding accountable individuals associated with FTX who may have betrayed public trust and broken the law,” said Philip Davis, the kingdom’s prime minister. The Bahamas will conduct its own “criminal investigation into the collapse of FTX,” he added.
Sam Bankman-Fried was scheduled to speak before a House of Representatives committee on Tuesday, as was John Ray, the new head of FTX. The former executives of the bankrupt platform have exhibited “complete failure” at all levels of scrutiny, spending without really counting their clients’ money, John Ray said Monday, in a document released the day before the congressional hearing.
At first glance, “the collapse of the FTX group appears to be the result of the sheer concentration of control in the hands of a very small group of grossly inexperienced and unsophisticated individuals, who have not implemented any of the systems or controls required for a company to who have been entrusted with someone else’s money or assets,” the official stressed.
Considered one of the leading cryptocurrency exchanges in the world, in early November FTX was suddenly unable to return the money it had deposited there to its customers. The group filed for bankruptcy on November 11.
