By Sherrica Thompson
Staff Writer
#TheBahamas, December 13, 2022 – Less than 24-hours before he was set to testify before US Congress remotely, former CEO of FTX Digital Assets based in The Bahamas, Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested by Bahamian police. Confirmation of the thirty-year-old’s arrest came from the Attorney General of the Bahamas, Ryan Pinder, in a statement issued shortly after the arrest on Monday December 12.
AG Pinder said the crypto exchange founder’s arrest resulted from a notification from the United States of criminal charges against Bankman-Fried. Pinder also said there was a chance that Bankman-Fried would be extradited to his home country.
“SBF’s arrest followed receipt of formal notification from the United States that it has filed criminal charges against SBF and is likely to request his extradition.
As a result of the notification received and the material provided therewith, it was deemed appropriate for the Attorney General to seek SBF’s arrest and hold him in custody pursuant to our nation’s Extradition Act,” AG Pinder said.
He added: “At such time as a formal request for extradition is made, The Bahamas intends to process it promptly, pursuant to Bahamian law and its treaty obligations with the United States.”
In response to Bankman-Fried’s arrest, Prime Minister of the Bahamas Phillip Davis said his country had a shared interest in holding FTX associates accountable and the Bahamas would continue to investigate the matter.
“The Bahamas and the United States have a shared interest in holding accountable all individuals associated with FTX who may have betrayed the public trust and broken the law.
“While the United States is pursuing criminal charges against SBF individually, The Bahamas will continue its own regulatory and criminal investigations into the collapse of FTX, with the continued cooperation of its law enforcement and regulatory partners in the United States and elsewhere,” the Prime Minister explained.
According to reports from the Royal Bahamas Police Force, Bankman-Fried was taken into custody around 6pm Monday at his apartment unit at the Albany, an upscale community in Nassau for various Financial Offences against laws of the United States, which it says are also offences in The Bahamas.
The former CEO will appear in the Magistrate Court in Nassau, Bahamas, today Tuesday, December 13.
Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO of FTX last month after the company filed for US bankruptcy protection, causing an uproar and a global demand for increased regulation of the cryptocurrency industry.
The meltdown followed suspicions about the billion-dollar company, which at the time was among the largest crypto currency companies in the world. In the weeks following, explosive articles and news reports have exposed exorbitant spending, unchecked oversight of the company which had no executive Board and an alleged wantonness with billions of dollars invested, which the court-appointed CEO has characterised as the worst he had ever seen.
It is unclear whether Bankman-Fried will next appear, in person, in the US Congress which had been the original expectation for the man who in a matter of mere weeks went from a $40 million dollar penthouse in The Bahamas, to a prison cell.