The chief executive officer of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), was due to appear in court in The Bahamas on Tuesday following his arrest late Monday night.
Attorney General, Ryan Pinder in a statement, said the arrest “followed receipt of formal notification from the United States that it has filed criminal charges against SBF and is likely to request his extradition”.
Officers of the Financial Crimes Investigation Unit arrested Bankman-Fried at his apartment complex in Albany on various financial offenses against laws of the United States, which are also offences against laws of The Bahamas.
According to the statement by the Attorney General “as a result of the notification received and the material provided therewith, it was deemed appropriate for the Attorney General to seek SBF’s arrest and hold him in custody pursuant to our nation’s Extradition Act.
“At such time as a formal request for extradition is made, The Bahamas intends to process it promptly, pursuant to Bahamian law and its treaty obligations with the United States”.
Prime Minister Phillip Davis in an immediate response said The Bahamas and the United States have a shared interest in holding accountable all individuals associated with FTX “who may have betrayed the public trust and broken the law.
“While the United States is pursuing criminal charges against SBF individually, The Bahamas will continue its own regulatory and criminal investigations into the collapse of FTX, with the continued cooperation of its law enforcement and regulatory partners in the United States and elsewhere,” he added.
FTX, which is registered in The Bahamas as FTX Digital Markets Ltd. moved its headquarters from Hong Kong to The Bahamas last year and the police in Nassau have already announced an investigation into FTX that had been backed by elite investors like BlackRock and Sequoia Capital, rapidly becoming one of the biggest crypto exchanges in the world.
In addition to the Securities Commission of The Bahamas (SCB) probe, the US Justice Department is also investigating FTX.
Last month FTX filed for bankruptcy in the US, leaving many users unable to withdraw their funds. According to a court filing last month, FTX owed its 50 largest creditors almost US$ 3.1 billion.
The FTX exchange allowed customers to trade normal money for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.
Bankman-Fried, 30, was once viewed as a young version of legendary US investor Warren Buffett, and as recently as late October had a net worth estimated at more than $15 billion.
Wall Street regulators also said they will be taking action against Bankman-Fried.
Bankman-Fried had been due to testify about the collapse of FTX before the US Congress on Tuesday.
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