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 america, the place he faces fraud fees over the cryptocurrency trade’s collapse, a Bahamas official has stated.
Doan Cleare, the Bahamas’ appearing 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 Japanese Commonplace Time (16:00 GMT), a courtroom official advised Reuters.
Wednesday’s continuing might set the stage for the 30-year-old cryptocurrency mogul to depart the Caribbean nation after a number of days of confusion concerning the standing of Bankman-Fried’s extradition.
A US-based lawyer for Bankman-Fried didn't reply to requests for remark. An individual conversant in the matter stated Bankman-Fried intends to consent to extradition. Bankman-Fried has acknowledged risk-management failures at FTX however has stated he doesn't imagine he has felony legal responsibility.
A spokesman for the US lawyer’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 primarily based, 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 shops reported over the weekend that he would reverse his determination.
Earlier on Tuesday, Bankman-Fried’s native defence lawyer Jerone Roberts declined to remark as he departed the Justice of the Peace Court docket within the capital Nassau. US embassy officers earlier entered the courthouse, a Reuters witness stated, however Bankman-Fried was not seen on Tuesday.
Fall from grace
The arrest capped a surprising fall from grace for Bankman-Fried, who rode a growth within the values of bitcoin and different digital property to turn into a billionaire a number of occasions over.
He has been below rising scrutiny since early November when clients raced to withdraw funds from FTX amid issues over the commingling of their property with Alameda.
Damian Williams, the highest federal prosecutor in New York Metropolis, stated final week that Bankman-Fried’s actions amounted to “one of many largest monetary frauds in American historical past”.
The $32bn trade 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 generally known as Fox Hill Jail. In a 2021 report, the US state division described situations on the facility as “harsh”, citing overcrowding, rodent infestation and prisoners counting on buckets as bogs.
Native authorities say situations have since improved.
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