Ex-Crypto CEO Bankman-Fried arrested one month after company went bankrupt

The founder and ex-CEO of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, Sam Bankman–Fried, has been arrested, about a month after his company collapsed.

The Crypto boss was arrested in the Bahamas at the request of U.S. authorities.

SBF as he’s commonly called is yet to be charged but many believe the sealed indictment concerning the matter, set to be unsealed in New York, will share more details.

U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, in a statement shared on Twitter Monday said:

“Earlier this evening, Bahamian authorities arrested Samuel Bankman-Fried at the request of the U.S. Government, based on a sealed indictment filed by the SDNY, We expect to move to unseal the indictment in the morning and will have more to say at that time.”

The Bahamian government confirmed Monday that Bankman-Fried’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.”

Reports indicate that SBF’s charges will be related to securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy, wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, and money laundering.

“While the United States is pursuing criminal charges against SBF individually, the Bahamas will continue its own regulatory and criminal investigations into the collapse of FTX, with the continued cooperation of its law enforcement and regulatory partners in the United States and elsewhere,” said Prime Minister of the Bahamas, Philip Davis, in a statement.

Recall that at least $1 billion of customer funds were said to have vanished from collapsed crypto exchange.

Bankman had secretly transferred $10 billion of customer funds from FTX to Bankman-Fried’s trading company Alameda Research but a humongous portion of that money has now disappeared.