ShareFTX founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, has been arrested in the Bahamas following an extradition request from the United States. The crypto billionaire, 30, was taken into custody on December 12, only a day before he was due to testify in front of the House Financial Services Committee over the $32 billion collapse of FTX.
Busted!
Prime Minister Philip Davis said: “The Bahamas and the United States have a shared interest in holding accountable all individuals associated with FTX who may have betrayed the public trust and broken the law. While the United States is pursuing criminal charges against SBF individually, The Bahamas will continue its own regulatory and criminal investigations into the collapse of FTX, with the continued cooperation of its law enforcement and regulatory partners in the United States and elsewhere.”The New York Times reported that charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and securities fraud, as well as standalone charges of securities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering, were all likely just the beginning of what will certainly become one of the most followed legal cases in the world.
Already the talk is of a potential prison sentence of decades but prosecutors still have to secure the extradition first. Legal commentators do, however, seem to think that this will be a formality now that evidence of wrongdoing has been collected.
Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor, told CNBC: “It is inconceivable to me that the Justice Department would have charged this case unless they were confident that they could extradite him. The statement by the Bahamian government suggests that they’re going to cooperate.”
He added that Bankman-Fried might be looking at a long wait behind bars given the likelihood of more charges being added to the list.
“The more that they charge, the bigger that the case is, the more time they’re going to need to get in motion. I would say late 2023 is the earliest a trial would occur.”
There is also civil action on the horizon, but Bankman-Fried is rumoured to be down to his last $100,000 so creditors might have to be satisfied with seeing him behind bars in the end.
