FTX Founder to Stop Defying Extradition as US Presses Fraud Charges, Reports Suggest
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.
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Sam Bankman-Fried, the co-founder of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, will drop his fight against extradition to the United States where he faces charges of fraud and other financial crimes, media reported Sunday. Bankman-Fried’s lawyer said during his first court appearance that his client would resist being sent to the United States, but American media cited people familiar with the matter as saying on Sunday that he would no longer fight it and would make an announcement in court next week. The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York’s Securities and Commodities Fraud Task Force is handling the case. The charges against Bankman-Fried could land him in prison for decades. He has denied any wrongdoing.The US Department of Justice on Tuesday announced charges against the 30-year-old Californian, who is being held at a prison in the Bahamas. He is accused of conspiring to defraud crypto investors of billions of dollars in a scheme that allegedly led to FTX’s downfall last month.
