Sam Bankman-Fried Arrested in Bahamas After US Authorities Announce Criminal Charges
The South District of New York Attorney's office has announced criminal charges against Sam Bankman-Fried for abusing his role as CEO in the FTX collapse.
US authorities are probing Bankman-Fried's cash flows to the Bahamas on the day of its bankruptcy, according to Bloomberg.
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
At the request of US officials, Bankman-Fried was arrested by Bahamian law enforcement and will soon be extradited to the US.
US Justice Department officials are also conducting a broad investigation into how FTX handled its assets and customer funds. The New York Times reported earlier this week that federal prosecutors are also looking into whether Bankman-Fried made illegal trades which helped lead to the collapse of Terra in the spring.
Carolina Ellison, the ex-CEO of Alameda Research, was recently spotted in a coffee shop near the South District of New York's FBI Office, so speculation has risen that she is cooperating with law enforcement.
PLEASE CONFIRM: A user claims that they spotted Caroline Ellison at Ground Support Coffee on West Broad in SoHo Manhattan at 8:15 AM. This would mean she is not in Hong Kong and is in NY not in custody. pic.twitter.com/QUduYO9GfZ
— Autism Capital 🧩 (@AutismCapital) December 4, 2022
Given this, it is now possible that Ellison will turn on Bankman-Fried, thus providing herself a lighter sentence and far less accountability for the FTX-Alameda fraud.
As I previously reported, SBF stated he would not be ready to testify at the House Financial Committee hearing tomorrow, and the news of his arrest confirms that.
A Fox report indicates that SBF could be potentially spend the rest of his life in prison.
