In the night between Wednesday and Thursday, the founder and former CEO of the cryptocurrency exchange platform FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, arrived in the United States after being extradited from the Bahamas, the country where he lived and where his company is based. 30-year-old American citizen, Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas last November 13 after a US court had issued an arrest warrant against him: he is accused of defrauding his investors and of having committed one of the major scams financial history of the United States.
The case of Bankman-Fried and FTX was one of the biggest scandals ever in the cryptocurrency industry and led to the bankruptcy of the company. In particular, he is accused of having used the money deposited by FTX clients to finance his separate business (Alameda Research, which deals with financial trading), with the aim of making generous political donations and large private real estate purchases, losing this brings about eight billion dollars of investment and savings of thousands of people.
Bankman-Fried did not legally oppose the decision on his extradition but denies the allegations against him. He could appear in a US court as early as Thursday morning. Meanwhile, FTX co-founder Gary Wang and Caroline Ellison, former CEO of Alameda Research, said they guilty of various counts for their role in the financial fraud: both Wang and Ellison are cooperating with federal prosecutors.
