FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (2nd L) is led away handcuffed by officers of the Royal Bahamas Police Force in Nassau, Bahamas on December 13, 2022.
Mario Duncanson | AFP | Getty Images
FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried will now not contest extradition to the U.S., an about-face just days after he was remanded to Bahamian jail pending a hearing, an individual acquainted with the matter told CNBC.
The previous crypto billionaire will appear in Bahamian court this Monday to formally waive his extradition rights, paving the way in which for federal authorities to secure his return to the U.S.
Extradition between the Bahamas and the U.S. is codified by a 1991 treaty. In practice, the method takes months, if not years, to finish since the accused have quite a few possibilities to appeal. Bankman-Fried’s legal team had initially said that it planned to fight extradition. The change of heart would move up the timeline for Bankman-Fried’s federal trial significantly.
The 30-year-old MIT graduate was originally scheduled for his next hearing in February 2023.
A representative for Bankman-Fried declined to comment.
Bankman-Fried was indicted in Latest York federal court on Monday, on charges of wire fraud, securities fraud, conspiracy to defraud america, and money laundering. If sentenced, he could face the remaining of his life in prison. The previous FTX CEO also faces concurrent charges from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission over similar allegations that he worked to defraud FTX customers of billions of dollars since 2019, the 12 months the exchange was founded.
At the center of Bankman-Fried’s empire was Alameda Research, a crypto hedge fund that federal regulators allege used FTX customer money to have interaction in trading which lost billions of dollars.
FTX’s collapse was precipitated when reporting by CoinDesk revealed a highly concentrated position in self-issued FTT coins, which Bankman-Fried’s hedge fund Alameda Research used as collateral for billions in crypto loans. Binance, a rival exchange, announced it could sell its stake in FTT, spurring a large withdrawal in funds. The corporate froze assets and declared bankruptcy days later. Charges from the SEC and CFTC indicated that FTX had commingled customer funds with Bankman-Fried’s crypto hedge fund, Alameda Research, and that billions in customer deposits had been lost along the way in which.
