It had been thought the cryptocurrency tycoon, who founded the exchange FTX, would fight being sent to New York to face fraud charges. But he appeared in a Nassau court on Wednesday where he told a judge he waived his “right to such formal extradition proceedings”.
Wednesday 21 December 2022 19:52, UK
Sam Bankman-Fried has been extradited to the US from The Bahamas as he faces criminal charges relating to the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
Authorities in the Bahamas said the FTX founder had waived his right to challenge the extradition and Bankman-Fried was witnessed leaving a magistrate court in Nasssau in a dark SUV.
According to Reuters, a plane carrying the former chief executive departed the Bahamas from a private airfield by Nassau’s airport.
Bankman-Fried is due to land at Westchester County Airport in New York and will likely appear in front of a US judge later on Thursday.
It comes after two of his associates pleaded guilty to criminal charges related to the FTX collapse.
Carolyn Ellison, former chief executive of Alameda Research – a trading firm started by Bankman-Fried – and Gary Wang, who co-founded FTX, pleaded guilty to charged “related to their role sin the fraud that contributed to FTX’s collapse”, US Attorney Damian Williams said.
Bankman-Fried had earlier decided to agree to extradition in part out of a “desire to make the relevant customers whole”, according to the affidavit, which is dated 20 December.
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His lawyer told the judge that his client was “anxious to leave”.
The hearing was adjourned after the statements.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan last week charged the cryptocurrency mogul with stealing billions of dollars in FTX customer assets to plug losses at his hedge fund, Alameda Research, in what US Attorney Damian Williams called “one of the biggest financial frauds in American history”.
Bankman-Fried was arrested on a US extradition request last week in The Bahamas, where he lives and FTX is based.
He initially said he would contest extradition, but it was reported over the weekend that he would reverse that decision.
Bankman-Fried has acknowledged risk-management failures at FTX but said he does not believe he has criminal liability.
His personal wealth is thought to have swelled to $20bn (£16.2bn) at the exchange’s peak, but has since reportedly shrunk to $100,000 (£83,000).
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Wednesday’s hearing followed a confusing sequence of events this week that left the status of Bankman-Fried’s expected extradition unclear.
On Monday, following the news reports he had agreed to be extradited, Bankman-Fried arrived at the courthouse in a black van marked “Corrections” wearing a blue suit jacket and white shirt.
At the hearing, his local defence lawyer, Jerone Roberts, said he was not informed of the purpose of the proceedings.
After a brief recess, Mr Roberts said his client had seen an affidavit outlining the charges against him but wanted access to the full indictment before consenting to extradition.
The proceedings were then adjourned. They had been expected to resume on Tuesday morning, but Bankman-Fried’s legal papers were not filed in time.
Bankman-Fried rode a crypto boom to become a billionaire several times over and an influential US political donor, before FTX’s crash wiped out his wealth and tarnished his reputation.
The collapse was driven by a wave of customer withdrawals amid concerns over co-mingling of funds with Alameda.
The cryptoexchange declared bankruptcy on 11 November with Bankman-Fried stepping down as CEO the same day.
