Sam Bankman-Fried extradited to the US
Sam Bankman-Fried will be extradited to the US to face criminal charges for the demise of cryptocurrency exchange FTX after a judge in the Bahamas approved his transfer.
In a hearing on Wednesday morning, Bankman-Fried’s legal team told the court that the former crypto executive agreed to extradition to the US, waiving his right to extradition proceedings as he had a “desire to make the relevant customers whole”, the WSJ reports.
The former crypto hero has been in custody since being detained at his home in the Bahamas last week after magistrates in Nassau decided to charge him with ‘financial crimes’.
At the time, Prime Minister of the Bahamas, Philip Davis 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.”
In the US, federal prosecutors in the US attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York have charged Bankman-Fried with eight criminal counts, including fraud and money-laundering offences.
Currently, lawyers representing Bankman-Fried are negotiating with federal prosecutors in New York on a bail arrangement that would enable him to forego detention, sources told CNN.
Bankman-Fried is expected to fly back to the US today.