The Bahamas police arrested former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, according to the country’s attorney general, who added that the Bahamas had received formal notification from the U.S. of criminal charges against him.
His arrest followed the filing of criminal charges against him by the US government. Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), confirmed the news in a tweet late Monday night. According to Williams, the arrest was based on a sealed indictment filed by the SDNY.
“S.B.F.’s arrest followed receipt of formal notification from the United States that it has filed criminal charges against S.B.F. and is likely to request his extradition,” the government of the Bahamas also said in a statement.
FTX declared bankruptcy in the United States last month, rendering many users unable to withdraw their funds. According to a court filing last month, FTX owed nearly $3.1 billion to its 50 largest creditors. Among the most serious allegations leveled against Mr Bankman-Fried is that he used billions of dollars in customer funds to prop up Alameda, his investment trading firm.
It is unclear how much money people who have funds in the exchange will receive at the conclusion of the bankruptcy proceedings, though many experts have warned that it may be a small fraction of what they deposited.
The sources for this piece include an article in BBC.