FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has signed authorized papers paving the best way for his extradition from The Bahamas to america, the place he faces fraud expenses over the cryptocurrency change’s collapse, a Bahamas official stated on Tuesday.
Doan Cleare, The Bahamas’ appearing commissioner of Corrections, advised Reuters the paperwork have been signed round midday on Tuesday. A listening to in Bankman-Fried’s case will happen on Wednesday at 11:00am EST (9:30pm IST), a court docket official advised Reuters.
Wednesday’s continuing may set the stage for the 30-year-old cryptocurrency mogul to depart the Caribbean nation, after a number of days of confusion in regards to the standing of Bankman-Fried’s extradition.
A US-based lawyer for Bankman-Fried didn’t reply to requests for remark. An individual acquainted with the matter stated Bankman-Fried intends to consent to extradition. Bankman-Fried has acknowledged risk-management failures at FTX, however has stated he doesn’t consider he has prison legal responsibility.
A spokesman for the US lawyer’s workplace in Manhattan declined to remark.
Bankman-Fried was arrested final week in The Bahamas, the place he lives and the place FTX was based mostly, after a grand jury sitting in Manhattan federal court docket indicted him for allegedly stealing buyer funds to plug losses at Alameda Analysis, his crypto hedge fund.
He initially advised a Bahamas court docket he would contest extradition, however Reuters and different retailers reported over the weekend that he would reverse his determination.
Throughout a court docket listening to on Monday at which Bankman-Fried appeared, his native defence lawyer Jerone Roberts stated he had not been knowledgeable of the aim of the continuing. He later stated that whereas his shopper had seen an affidavit laying out the costs in opposition to him, he wished to entry the whole indictment earlier than agreeing to extradition.
Earlier on Tuesday, Roberts declined to remark as he departed Justice of the Peace Courtroom in capital Nassau. US embassy officers earlier entered the courthouse, a Reuters witness stated, however Bankman-Fried was not seen on Tuesday.
Fall from Grace
The arrest capped a surprising fall from grace for Bankman-Fried, who rode a growth within the values of bitcoin and different digital property to change into a billionaire a number of instances over.
He has been beneath growing scrutiny since early November, when clients raced to withdraw funds from FTX amid issues over commingling of their property with Alameda.
Damian Williams, the highest federal prosecutor in New York Metropolis, stated final week that Bankman-Fried’s actions amounted to “one of many greatest monetary frauds in American historical past.”
The $32 billion (roughly Rs. 2,64,700 crore) change declared chapter on November 11, and Bankman-Fried stepped down as CEO the identical day.
He has since been detained at The Bahamas Division of Corrections in Nassau, previously generally known as Fox Hill jail. The US State Division in a 2021 report described situations on the facility as “harsh,” citing overcrowding, rodent infestation and prisoners counting on buckets as bathrooms.
Native authorities say situations have since improved.
© Thomson Reuters 2022
