According to a news release, the Royal Bahamas Police Force arrested FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.
The arrest came after the US filed criminal charges against Bankman-Fried, according to the statement, and the country expects the US to request that the Bahamas extradite Bankman-Fried soon.
“As a result of the notification received and the material presented therewith, it was judged appropriate for the Attorney General to seek SBF's arrest and hold him in jail in accordance with our nation's Extradition Act,” Attorney General Ryan Pinder said in a statement. “When a formal request for extradition is made, The Bahamas wants to process it as soon as possible, in accordance with Bahamian law and its treaty responsibilities with the United States.”
The United States Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York stated in a tweet that prosecutors in the United States have indicted Bankman-Fried, albeit the indictment remained sealed.
The allegations could include wire fraud, securities fraud, money laundering, and associated conspiracy counts, according to the New York Times.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission also intends to file charges, according to Enforcement Director Gurbir Grewal's statement.
“We thank our law enforcement partners for their efforts in securing Mr. Sam Bankman-arrest Fried's in the Bahamas on federal criminal charges,” he said. “Charges relating to Mr. Bankman-violations Fried's of our securities laws have been independently authorized by the Securities and Exchange Commission and will be filed publicly tomorrow in the Southern District of New York.”
Bahamas Prime Minister Philip Davis announced in a statement that the country would continue its own investigation into FTX's collapse in addition to the criminal charges filed by the United States.
On Tuesday, Bankman-Fried was scheduled to testify digitally before the House Financial Services Committee concerning the collapse of the exchange. In a statement, committee Chair Maxine Waters said she was “surprised” to learn of the arrest at the request of the US Attorney's office.
“It's past time to start the process of bringing Mr. Bankman-Fried to justice. However, as the general public is aware, my staff and I have been working hard over the last month to secure Mr. Bankman-appearance Fried's before our Committee tomorrow morning ”added the California Democrat. “This afternoon, we received confirmation from Mr. Bankman-Fried and his lawyers that he was still planning to come before the Committee tomorrow, but then he was arrested.”
The Royal Bahamas Police Force said in a separate press release that officers from its Financial Crimes Investigation Unit apprehended Bankman-Fried around 6:00 p.m. local time.
“He was arrested in regard to several financial offenses against US laws, which are also offenses against Commonwealth of The Bahamas laws,” according to the document.
Bankman-Fried will appear in court in the Bahamas on Tuesday. Bankman-attorney, Fried's Mark Cohen, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Last month, FTX dropped after a WikiBit article revealed that Alameda Research, a sibling business formed by Bankman-Fried, possessed a high number of FTT tokens produced by FTX.
Just over a month ago, FTX declared bankruptcy. In court filings and prepared Congressional testimony, the new CEO, John J. Ray III, stated that he had never seen anything like the corporate governance and documentation problems that he saw at FTX.
Among other things, he discovered that FTX had excessively commingled customer and business assets, resulting in billions of dollars in losses. In his prepared remarks, which were released earlier Monday, he stated that his new team had secured almost $1 billion in firm assets to date.
After quitting his company, Bankman-Fried embarked on a publicity tour, speaking to The New York Times, New York Magazine, Vox, and countless other news sites. He spoke earlier in the day on Twitter Spaces and in a live Forbes interview.
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