The founder of the cryptocurrency platform FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, detained in the Bahamas, voluntarily agreed on Monday to be extradited to the United States, where he is accused of eight counts by the Attorney General’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
Bankman-Fried’s attorney, Jerone Roberts, confirmed to reporters that his legal team is now preparing “the necessary legal documents” for his client’s departure from the Bahamas to the US.
These statements come after a chaotic and confusing hearing in the Bahamas Court, where Bankman-Fried appeared hours before without initially resolving his possible extradition.
Roberts then told Judge Shaka Serville that he was surprised to see his client in court because no formal application for it had yet been filed.
Likewise, the lawyer reproached the magistrate that the procedure was being carried out “prematurely” and without his participation.
The hearing was held after it was reported the day before that the young financier, disgraced at 30, had changed his mind and would not try to challenge his extradition to the US.
Bankman-Fried has been incarcerated in the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services since last Tuesday, after being denied bail due to flight risk.
The FTX founder is charged with eight counts, including wire fraud, money laundering and violation of political campaign finance laws by the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
Alameda Research was the investment firm created by Bankman-Fried himself, in which he allegedly used billions of dollars from FTX clients without their knowledge to carry out risky operations.
But the charges also have a political dimension: one of them accuses him of “committing crimes against the United States by engaging in violations of federal laws relating to the making, receiving, and reporting of contributions , donations, or expenditures” incurred in federal elections.
In addition, Bankman-Fried also faces another lawsuit, in this case from the Securities and Exchange Commission of the United States (SEC), which accuses him of orchestrating fraud against investors.
FTX filed for bankruptcy on November 11, and at the end of the same month, the company’s new managers appeared for the first time before the bankruptcy court of the state of Delaware (USA) to begin the restructuring process.
The platform, which came to be valued at 32,000 million dollars, could have more than a million creditors around the world. So far, the company has admitted that it owes more than $3 billion to its top 50 creditors.
