FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried (2nd L) is led away handcuffed by officers of the Royal Bahamas Police Force in Nassau, Bahamas on December 13, 2022.
Mario Duncanson | AFP | Getty Images
FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried will not contest extradition to the U.S., an about-face simply days after he was remanded to Bahamian jail pending a listening to, an individual accustomed to the matter instructed CNBC.
The former crypto billionaire will seem in Bahamian court docket this Monday to formally waive his extradition rights, paving the way in which for federal authorities to safe his return to the U.S.
Extradition between the Bahamas and the U.S. is codified by a 1991 treaty. In observe, the method takes months, if not years, to finish as a result of the accused have quite a few probabilities to enchantment. Bankman-Fried’s authorized group had initially stated that it deliberate to struggle extradition. The change of coronary heart would transfer up the timeline for Bankman-Fried’s federal trial considerably.
The 30-year-old MIT graduate was initially scheduled for his subsequent listening to in February 2023.
A consultant for Bankman-Fried declined to remark.
Bankman-Fried was indicted in New York federal court docket on Monday, on costs of wire fraud, securities fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States, and cash laundering. If sentenced, he may face the remainder of his life in jail. The former FTX CEO additionally faces concurrent costs from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission over related allegations that he labored to defraud FTX prospects of billions of {dollars} since 2019, the yr the trade was based.
At the guts of Bankman-Fried’s empire was Alameda Research, a crypto hedge fund that federal regulators allege used FTX buyer cash to have interaction in buying and selling which misplaced billions of {dollars}.
FTX’s collapse was precipitated when reporting by CoinDesk revealed a extremely concentrated place in self-issued FTT cash, which Bankman-Fried’s hedge fund Alameda Research used as collateral for billions in crypto loans. Binance, a rival trade, introduced it will promote its stake in FTT, spurring a large withdrawal in funds. The firm froze property and declared chapter days later. Charges from the SEC and CFTC indicated that FTX had commingled buyer funds with Bankman-Fried’s crypto hedge fund, Alameda Research, and that billions in buyer deposits had been misplaced alongside the way in which.
