U.S. federal prosecutors on Tuesday (December 13) alleged Sam Bankman-Fried committed fraud and violated campaign finance laws, and the founder and former CEO of FTX also faced additional charges by U.S. regulators.
The 30-year-old Bankman-Fried arrived at a heavily guarded Bahamas court on Tuesday for his first in-person public appearance since the crypto currency exchange’s collapse. He could be extradited to the United States.
In the indictment, prosecutors said Bankman-Fried had engaged in a scheme to defraud FTX’s customers by misappropriating their deposits to pay for expenses and debts and to make investments on behalf of his crypto hedge fund, Alameda Research LLC.
Bankman-Fried has apologized to customers and acknowledged oversight failings at FTX, but said he doesn’t personally think he has any criminal liability.
