On December 11, two of the crypto industry’s most visible people were in the news for the wrong reasons. After weeks of speculation that FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried had stolen money from consumers and investors, he was finally arrested.
Bahamas Attorney General Ryan Pinder confirmed on December 12 that Bankman-Fried is currently in detention pending an extradition process.
Also, the Royal Bahamas Police Force said in a statement that he was arrested without incident at his apartment complex in Nassau at around 6 pm ET on Monday.
Thus, at his arraignment on the 13th of December, federal prosecutors in Manhattan plan to unseal the case against him.
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SEC Claims Fraud Is A House Of Cards
Moreover, US Attorney for the District of Columbia Damian Williams released the following statement on Twitter on December 12 after Bahamian police arrested Samuel Bankman-Fried at the request of the United States government based on a sealed indictment filed by the Southern District of New York. After we take the necessary steps tomorrow morning to unseal the indictment, we will have additional comments.
In light of the allegations of fraud against Mr. Bankman-Fried, it is imperative that cryptocurrency platforms conform to our regulations. However, bad news also arrived that day for Binance and its CEO, Changpeng Zhao, who had just been crowned king of the cryptocurrency world.
Meanwhile, prosecutors in the United States are weighing whether or not to file money-laundering charges against Binance and its CEO or other officials.
According to sources, a number of the half-dozen federal prosecutors working on the issue are convinced that the information gathered warrants aggressive action against the exchange and the filing of criminal charges against individual officials, including founder Zhao.
Read more: Sam Bankman-Fried to testify in Congress about FTX cryptocurrencies scandal
