Former CEO and FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried has been arrested and reportedly faces extradition to the US. Just a day before his disgraced ex-CEO of FTX was scheduled to testify before Congress, he was arrested by Bahamian police at the request of the US government. SBF’s arrest comes a month after the sudden collapse of the once giant FTX, which later went on to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Bankman-Fried was arrested by the Royal Bahamas Police following formal notice from the United States Government that criminal charges had been filed against him, according to a December 12 statement by the Attorney General (AG) and the Minister of the Bahamas.
Sam Bankman-Fried took to Twitter just hours before reports of his arrest by Bahamian authorities and denied any involvement in or knowledge of a secret group chat called “Wirefraud” that purportedly included former FTX and Alameda top executives.
Members of Bankman-Fried’s circle are said to have participated in the “Wirefraud” group chat on the messaging program Signal, which also reportedly includes FTX Co-founder Zixiao “Gary” Wang, FTX Engineer Nishad Singh, and Former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison.
According to the AFR investigation, the chat was used to transmit top-secret information regarding FTX and Alameda’s operations in the months before the company’s collapse.
However, Bankman-Fried claimed on Twitter that he “wasn’t a member” of the group chat if it were “real” and that he was “very convinced it’s just fake” because he had “never heard of such a group.”
Citing a person familiar with the matter, The New York Times reported on his December 12 indictment of Bankman-Fried for wire and securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, and money laundering.
Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Davis said in a statement that the two countries “shared a shared interest in holding accountable all those associated with FTX who may have abused public trust and broken the law.”
According to a Dec. 12 tweet by the U.S. The Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, Bahamian authorities arrested Bankman-Fried based on a sealed indictment they filed. The Associated Press previously reported that regulators and the Justice Department were investigating whether FTX used customer funds to back risky bets at Bankman-Fried’s hedge fund, Alameda Research.
