Crypto Kingpin Sam Bankman-Fried Arrested In The Bahamas [Update]

Sam Bankman-Fried, the central figure in the collapse of crypto exchange FTX, has just been arrested in The Bahamas, and is likely to be quickly extradited to the United States to face criminal charges.

As CNBC reports, authorities in The Bahamas have released a statement which reads:

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.

US authorities issued a statement shortly afterwards:

USA Damian Williams: 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.

— US Attorney SDNY (@SDNYnews) December 12, 2022

Bankman-Fried, who sucked ass at League of Legends by the way, ran FTX. In just a few short years, the crypto exchange went from nothing to plastering its name across all manner of sporting events and magazine covers. It was considered super-valuable because it charged customers fees to buy and bet on crypto, but also because Bankman-Fried was considered the next tech whiz who was going to use FTX to launch a “super app” for finance that would make crypto legit.

Earlier this year, however, the entire thing collapsed, partly because crypto itself is a scam, but mostly because FTX in particular was very much a scam, down to the fact senior members of the exchange had a chat group called “Wirefraud.” Bankman-Fried, who was in The Bahamas in part to avoid having to testify before the House Financial Services Committee (FTX also moved its headquarters to the Caribbean nation last year), is now facing criminal charges in two countries. Meanwhile, his successor in charge of what’s left of FTX has already publicly said the company spent “$5 billion…buying a myriad of businesses and investments, many of which may be worth only a fraction of what was paid for them,” and claimed that Bankman-Fried had engaged in “unacceptable management practices.”

from my conversation with @SBF_FTX earlier today:

"Are you worried you might be detained if you stepped foot into the US?"
SBF: "I don't believe I would be… at some point that's something I have to think harder about"

welp pic.twitter.com/jVfQFg0vN2

— Molly White (@molly0xFFF) December 13, 2022

UPDATE 8:20pm ET: The New York Times reports that Bankman-Fried is being charged by US authorities with wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy and money laundering.