FTX Chief Sam Bankman-Fried Arrested On U.S. Criminal Charges, Will Skip Congressional Hearing
On Monday, December 12, the disgraced co-founder of crypto exchange FTX - Sam Bankman-Fried - was arrested in The Bahamas after the U.S. government filed for criminal indictment.
The arrest comes weeks after FTX filed for bankruptcy amid growing speculations that the misuse of client’s funds were the reason behind the empire’s collapse. SBF is currently in the custody of The Bahamas police and awaiting an extradition to the U.S.
Damian Williams, US attorney for the Southern District of New York, said: “Earlier this evening, Bahamian authorities arrested Samuel Bankman-Fried at the request of the U.S. Government, based on a sealed indictment filed by the SDNY. We expect to move to unseal the indictment in the morning and will have more to say at that time”.
Post the FTX collapse, Sam Bankman-Fried has been facing investigations in the United and The Bahamas. There have been severe allegations that FTX misused customer funds and lent them to trading firm Alameda Research without their discretion. During his media interviews since the FTX collapse, SBF has admitted to major managerial missteps. However, he said that he’s never tried to commit any fraud or break the law.
The latest arrest for the FTX founder comes just a day before he was scheduled to appear for a Congressional hearing on Tuesday. Maxine Waters, the House Financial Services Committee chair said that she was “disappointed” and “surprised” with the indictment.
She added: “Although Mr. Bankman-Fried must be held accountable, the American public deserves to hear directly from Mr. Bankman-Fried about the actions that’ve harmed over one million people, and wiped out the hard-earned life savings of so many. The public has been waiting eagerly to get these answers under oath before Congress, and the timing of this arrest denies the public this opportunity. While I am disappointed that we will not be able to hear from Mr. Bankman-Fried tomorrow, we remain committed to getting to the bottom of what happened, and the Committee looks forward to beginning our investigation by hearing from Mr. John Ray III tomorrow.”
Multiple U.S. agencies have slapped charged against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has also stepped up its attack. Tweeting a quote from its division of enforcement directorate Gurbir Grewal, the SEC noted: “We commend our law enforcement partners for securing the arrest of Sam Bankman-Fried on federal criminal charges. The SEC has authorized separate charges relating to his violations of securities laws, to be filed publicly tomorrow in SDNY”.