SBF to be extradited, could be as soon as TODAY

By Dana Malcolm 

Staff Writer 

#TheBahamas, December 22, 2022 – Disgraced FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried will leave the Bahamas soon, and it could be as early as today.  Bankman-Fried wants to face the criminal charges against him in his native US after agreeing to be extradited.  Several government agencies in the US have filed complaints and criminal charges against Bankman-Fried in the wake of the collapse of his crypto company including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In a court hearing in The Bahamas last week, where he was initially arrested, Bankman-Fried had apparently planned to fight his extradition but did an about-face after being denied bail and spending a week in prison.  According to his attorney Jerone Roberts who spoke to local Bahamian news, the accused claimed he agreed to be extradited in an effort to ‘put his customers right’.  His extradition trial had been set for February next year but as he is now cooperating with the US, he is expected to land in his home country much sooner.

In terms of criminal charges, Bankman is facing eight counts: conspiracy to commit wire fraud which could get him as many as 20 years in jail; wire fraud which carries another 20-year max penalty; conspiracy to commit commodities fraud which has a 25-year max penalty; conspiracy to commit securities fraud which carries another 25 years; conspiracy to commit money laundering which carries as much as 20 years in prison; and conspiracy to defraud the Federal Election Commission and commit campaign finance violations which will slap an offender with up to 5 years.  In total, the former billionaire is facing up to 115 years in jail.

Bankman-Fried has told reporters that he did not knowingly commit fraud and never intended to do anything illegal but that excuse has been frowned upon by panelists in the recent congressional hearing where new CEO John Ray III detailed the depth of the mismanagement in the company describing it as some of the worst he had ever seen.