FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has signed legal documents paving the way for his extradition from the Bahamas to the United States, where he faces fraud charges over the cryptocurrency exchange collapse, a Bahamas official said Tuesday.
Doan Cleare, the Bahamas acting Commissioner of Corrections, told Reuters the documents were signed around noon on Tuesday. A hearing in the Bankman-Fried case will be held Wednesday at 11:00 a.m. EST (9:30 p.m. IST), a court official told Reuters.
The procedure on Wednesday could set the course for the 30-year-old cryptocurrency Mogul to leave the Caribbean nation after several days of confusion over the status of Bankman Fried’s Delivery.
A US-based attorney for Bankman-Fried did not respond to requests for comment. A person familiar with the matter said Bankman-Fried intended to agree to extradition. Bankman-Fried has admitted mistakes in risk management FTXbut has said he does not believe he is criminally responsible.
A spokesman for the US Attorney’s Office in Manhattan declined to comment.
Bankman Fried was arrested last week in the Bahamas, where he lives and where FTX was based, after a federal grand jury in Manhattan indicted him for allegedly stealing client funds to offset losses at Alameda Research, his crypto hedge fund.
He initially told a court in the Bahamas he would appeal the extradition, but Reuters and other media outlets reported over the weekend that he would reverse his decision.
During a court hearing Monday at which Bankman-Fried appeared, his local defense attorney, Jerone Roberts, said he was not briefed on the purpose of the proceedings. He later said that while his client had seen an affidavit setting out the charges against him, he wanted to see the full indictment before agreeing to extradition.
Roberts declined to comment earlier Tuesday as he exited the magistrates’ court in the capital, Nassau. US embassy officials entered the courthouse earlier, a Reuters witness said, but Bankman-Fried was not seen on Tuesday.
fall from grace
The arrest capped a stunning fall from grace for Bankman-Fried, who saw the values of Bitcoin and other digital assets boom to become a multi-billionaire.
He has come under increasing scrutiny since early November, when clients attempted to withdraw funds from FTX over concerns about their assets being commingled with Alameda.
Damian Williams, New York City’s chief federal attorney, said last week that Bankman-Fried’s actions were “one of the largest financial frauds in American history.”
The $32 billion (approximately Rs.2,64,700) exchange filed for bankruptcy on November 11 and Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO the same day.
He has since been incarcerated at the Bahamas Prison in Nassau, formerly known as Fox Hill Prison. The US State Department described conditions at the facility as “harsh” in a 2021 report, citing overcrowding, rodent infestations and prisoners who rely on buckets for toilets.
Local authorities say conditions have since improved.
© Thomson Reuters 2022
