MADRID, 13 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Bahamian authorities have announced the arrest of Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the bankrupt trading platform for cryptocurrencies and other cryptographic assets FTX, following a “notification” from the United States about the presentation of charges against him and in the face of a possible extradition.
Bahamas Attorney General Ryan Pinder said in a statement that “as a result of the notification received and the material delivered with it, it has been deemed appropriate for the Attorney General to request the arrest of Sam Bankman-Fried and that he remain in custody. , in line with the Re Extradition Law”.
“As soon as a formal extradition request is made, The Bahamas plans to process it expeditiously, in line with Bahamian law and its treaty obligations with the United States,” Pinder said.
Police have also confirmed his arrest and detailed that it took place “shortly after 6:00 p.m. (local time) on Monday, December 12, at his apartment complex, located in Albany, Nassau.”
“He was arrested in connection with various financial crimes against the laws of the United States, which are also under the law of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. He was taken into custody without incident and will appear this Tuesday, December 13, in court in Nassau” , you specified.
For his part, the Prime Minister of the Bahamas, Philip Davis, has stated that “The Bahamas and the United States have a common interest in holding to account all persons associated with FTX who may have betrayed public trust and violated the law.”
“While the United States has filed charges against Sam Bankman-Fried, the Bahamas will continue its criminal investigations into the FTX collapse, with the continued cooperation of legal agencies and regulatory partners in the United States and elsewhere,” it added.
The US Attorney’s office in Manhattan has indicated in its account on the social network Twitter that “Bahamian authorities have arrested Samuel Bankman-Fried at the request of the United States Government through a sealed indictment filed by the Southern District of New York”.
FTX announced in mid-November that it had decided to file for the protection of Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Law to carry out in an orderly manner the process of evaluation and liquidation of assets for the benefit of the interested parties. Thus, he explained that the FTX Group process includes FTX US, as well as the commercial firm Alameda Research and a total of 130 affiliated entities.
FTX’s solvency had been called into question after its rival Binance decided to back down from its intention to come to the rescue of the platform, after having carried out due diligence and before the opening of investigations by government agencies in the United States.
Previously, in a conference with investors, Bankman-Fried, still CEO of FTX, had estimated the hole in the platform at around 8,000 million dollars (a similar figure in euros), including the need for around 4,000 million dollars to that the firm could maintain its solvency.
