The government of Bahamas released a statement confirming the fact that Sam Bankman Fried who is the founder of the crashed crypto exchange FTX has been arrested by the police in Bahamas on Monday. The reason for arrest has been attributed to the fact that the US prosecutors filed charges against Sam Bankman Fried.
Following the statement by the Government of Bahamas, the Southern district of New York which is responsible for investigating the cases of collapse of Alameda and FTX took to Twitter to confirm the arrest. The arrest was initiated at the request of the government of US after the Southern district of New York filed a sealed indictment.
Sam Bankman Fried was arrested without any incident at his residence in Nassau on Monday shortly after 6pm ET. He is supposed to appear before the court on Tuesday. The extradition treaty of Bahamas with the US government gives authority to the government of Bahamas to deport any individual back to American soil if the charges against him exceed a punishment of one year.
Following the arrest the Securities and Exchanges commission (SEC) declared that they had authorised a series of charges against Sam. These charges were associated with the issue pertaining to “violations of various securities laws.” These charges weren’t declared at the time of the statement. They will be made public after the SEC files them on Tuesday.
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Tweets from SBF arrest
Kate Rooney on SBF arrest
.@SBF_FTX arrested in Bahamas
Emailed statement from Bahamas AG:
“SBF’s arrest followed receipt of formal notification from the United States that it has filed criminal charges against SBF and is likely to request his extradition” pic.twitter.com/wtFh73NrAa— Kate Rooney
(@Kr00ney) December 12, 2022
Peter Schiff on SBF arrest:
From a tactical perspective, I don’t understand why the U.S. government didn’t wait until after @SBF_FTX testified under oath before Congress tomorrow before charging him with a crime. Prosectors actually did #SBF a favor by saving him from himself.
— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) December 13, 2022
SBF Arrest Also Means He May Not Testify Before US Congress Tomorrow
Looks like SBF will be a no-show at the FTX Congressional hearing tomorrow.
Congresswoman Maxine Waters just made this statement on the SBF arrest: pic.twitter.com/CosCMl71Qk
— Altcoin Daily (@AltcoinDailyio) December 13, 2022
Food for thought: SBF were to testify before the US Congress on 13th of December, 2022. And after his arrest today, it is unclear if SBF is going to testify today. Does the timing not look odd?
#RELEASE: Chairwoman @RepMaxineWaters‘ Statement on the Arrest of Sam Bankman-Fried (@SBF_FTX ) | https://t.co/73niikzgx3 pic.twitter.com/MRuITYFJkG
— U.S. House Committee on Financial Services (@FSCDems) December 13, 2022
The charges that will be filed against Sam Bankman Fried who is responsible for the crash of FTX which resulted in a liquidation crisis and a bankruptcy is completely unclear. However individuals familiar with the matter have opined that the charges that would be filed against Sam would revolve around money laundering, securities fraud and securities fraud conspiracy.
The representatives of the legal team of Sam Bankman Fried did not issue any comment on his arrest even after repeated requests from various agencies.