Sam Bankman-Fried has been arrested

The founder of FTX Sam Bankman-Fried who was recently in the headlines for his company’s bankruptcy has been arrested in the Bahamas at the request of the United States of America.

The founder and former chief executive officer of one of the world’s largest exchanges was put behind bars after agents intervened at the behest of the United States of America to put handcuffs on the “White Knight.” 

The 30-year-old scammer’s file was in the hands of the Southern District of New York, which had been conducting the investigation against him for some time. 

Via Twitter, attorney Damian Williams broke the news with these words: 

“Tonight, Bahamian authorities arrested Samuel Bankman-Fried at the request of the US government, based on a sealed indictment filed by the SDNY.

We expect to move to open the indictment in the morning and will have more to say at that time.”

The criminal charges filed by America were confirmed by Ryan Pinder, attorney general of the Bahamas. 

According to Pinder, the United States “will probably ask for his extradition.”

Prime Minister Philip Davis let it be known that Bankman-Fried, was scheduled to testify before the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services today:

“The Bahamas and the United States have a common interest in holding accountable all individuals associated with FTX who may have betrayed public trust and broken the law.”

The FTX affair

The castle built by Sam Bankman-Fried through his creation (FTX) and the cooperation of the company Alameda Research through which he was similarly involved, soon crumbled a few days after CoinDesk came out with an article questioning the solvency of the collateral in FTT (FTX’s native token).

This had been followed by a Twitter diatribe between SBF and CZ (Changpeng Zhao) CEO of Binance, which is currently the world’s largest exchange. 

In a tweet, CZ had linked the story of Luna’s debacle to the FTX case, and this had been enough to stir up uproar and to arouse the reaction of users who started a veritable “counter” race that led to the failure of FTX within a week. 

Meanwhile, Changpeng Zhao had announced that he was selling the FTT in his belly and specified:

“Liquidating our FTT is just post-exit risk management, we learned from Luna.”

The tweet had been followed by an outstretched hand to the struggling rival by proposing to take over the company, only to turn around later deeming the transaction too risky. 

“The problems are beyond our control and ability to help.” 

FTX then invoked Chapter 11, which allows companies that apply for it to continue maneuvering while liquidation is negotiated with creditors.