A day before the disgraced FTX founder was scheduled to appear before the U.S. Congress, the Bahamas authorities arrested Sam Bankman-Fried as the U.S. government filed for criminal indictment.
In a statement on Monday, December 12, Ryan Pinder, the attorney general of the Bahamas, said that they have taken SBF into custody pending an extradition process. Damian Williams, US attorney for the Southern District of New York, further added that federal prosecutors in Manhattan would unseal the case against SBF on Tuesday, and will share more details.
As per the report from the New York Times, the U.S. authorities have slapped SBF with charges of wire fraud. Additionally, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has also authorized civil charges related to SBF’s violations of securities laws and money laundering.
Commenting on the development, Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Davis said both countries have “a shared interest in holding accountable all individuals associated with FTX who may have betrayed the public trust and broken the law”.
SBF Hearing to Continue As per Schedule
Amid all these developments, House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters said that the panel is still willing to hold its hearings on the FTX’s collapse. “It’s important for the American public to understand FTX and what was going on,” she said.
The FTX founder has been trying to dodge or delay the hearing saying that he still doesn’t have complete details of the events that led to FTX’s collapse. However, Maxine Waters threatened him with a subpoena which would make it mandatory for him to appear for the hearing.
One of the major allegations against SBF and FTX is that they misused customer funds while lending them out to Alameda Research. Besides, SBF has also admitted to several managerial missteps in the company. However, he says that he never tried to commit fraud or break the law.
Last week, the FBI, prosecutors, Department of Justice officials, and FTX’s new CEO and restructuring expert John Jay Ray III met at SDNY’s headquarters in downtown Manhattan. All these people discussed the potential charges at the meeting.
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