FTX’s Crypto Kingpin Sam Bankman-Fried Arrested In The Bahamas

Sam Bankman-Fried, the central determine within the collapse of crypto change FTX, has simply been arrested in The Bahamas, and is prone to be shortly extradited to america to face felony expenses.

As CNBC experiences, authorities in The Bahamas have launched an announcement which reads:

The Bahamas and america have a shared curiosity in holding accountable all people related to FTX who might have betrayed the general public belief and damaged the legislation. Whereas america is pursuing felony expenses towards SBF individually, The Bahamas will proceed its personal regulatory and felony investigations into the collapse of FTX, with the continued cooperation of its legislation enforcement and regulatory companions in america and elsewhere.

US authorities issued an announcement shortly afterwards:

Bankman-Fried, who sucked ass at League of Legends by the way in which, ran FTX. In only a few quick years, the crypto change went from nothing to plastering its identify throughout all method of sporting occasions and journal covers. It was thought of super-beneficial as a result of it charged prospects charges to purchase and guess on crypto, but additionally as a result of Bankman-Fried was thought of the subsequent tech whiz who was going to make use of FTX to launch a “tremendous app” for finance that will make crypto legit.

Earlier this yr, nonetheless, the whole factor collapsed, partly as a result of crypto itself is a rip-off, however principally as a result of FTX particularly was very a lot a rip-off, right down to the very fact senior members of the change had a chat group referred to as “Wirefraud.” Bankman-Fried, who was in The Bahamas partially to keep away from having to testify earlier than the Home Monetary Providers Committee (FTX additionally moved its headquarters to the Caribbean nation final yr), is now dealing with felony expenses in two nations. In the meantime, his successor in control of what’s left of FTX has already publicly stated the corporate spent “$5 billion…shopping for a myriad of companies and investments, lots of which can be price solely a fraction of what was paid for them,” and claimed that Bankman-Fried had engaged in “unacceptable administration practices.”

UPDATE 8:20pm ET: The New York Occasions experiences that Bankman-Fried is being charged by US authorities with wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy and cash laundering.