A federal prosecutor introduced Wednesday evening that two associates of former FTX CEO Sam Bankman Fried had agreed to plea offers on prices associated to the collapse of the cryptocurency trade. The prosecutor additionally stated Bankman-Fried was being flown to the United States from the Bahamas to face prices stemming from the scandal.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams stated Carolyn Ellison, the previous CEO of Alameda Research, a buying and selling agency began by Bankman-Fried, and Gary Wang, who co-founded FTX together with Bankman-Fried, pleaded responsible within the Southern District of New York to prices associated to “their roles in the fraud that contributed to FTX’s collapse.” Both are cooperating with the Southern District, he stated.
The prices towards them embrace wire fraud, securities fraud and commodities fraud.
“Gary has accepted responsibility for his actions and takes seriously his obligations as a cooperating witness,” an lawyer for Wang informed CBS News in an announcement.
The Securities and Exchange Commission additionally introduced civil prices towards Ellison and Wang Wednesday.
Bankman-Fried appeared at a Bahamian Magistrate’s Court Wednesday and stated he’d agreed to be extradited to the U.S. He was then taken again to jail, the place he waited for a airplane for the journey, in line with Bahamian news group Our News.
Williams stated Bankman-Fried is in FBI custody and “on his way back to the United States. He will be transported directly to the Southern District of New York and he will appear in court before a judge in this district as soon as possible.”
Bahamian authorities arrested Bankman-Fried final week on the request of the U.S. authorities. U.S. prosecutors allege he performed a central position within the speedy collapse of FTX and hid its issues from the general public and traders. The SEC stated Bankman-Fried illegally used traders’ cash to purchase actual property on behalf of himself and his household.
The 30-year-old might probably spend the remainder of his life in jail.
In media interviews, Bankman-Fried — the son of two Stanford professors and a prolific political donor — has maintained that he erred in his operating of FTX, however that he did not commit fraud.
Bankman-Fried was denied bail Friday after a Bahamian choose dominated that he posed a flight danger. The founder and former CEO of FTX, as soon as value tens of billions of {dollars} on paper, was being held within the Bahamas’ Fox Hill jail, which has been cited by human rights activists as having poor sanitation and being infested with rats and bugs.
Once he is again within the U.S., Bankman-Fried’s lawyer will be capable of request that he be launched on bail.