FTX Founder Sam Bankman-Fried Formally Charged With Conspiracy, Fraud in US Court
U.S. prosecutors revealed a litany of charges against Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of crypto exchange FTX, including wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and campaign finance violations early Tuesday.
Bankman-Fried was arrested Monday evening in The Bahamas, at the U.S.'s request, and is scheduled to appear before a magistrate court on Tuesday. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York announced late Monday it would move to unseal an indictment and seek his extradition to the U.S. A federal judge unsealed the indictment y Tuesday morning.
Earlier on Tuesday, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodities Future Trading Commission also announced various charges against Bankman-Fried.
In total, Bankman-Fried is facing eight charges: conspiracy to commit wire fraud on customers, wire fraud on customers, conspiracy to commit wire fraud on lenders, wire fraud on lenders, conspiracy to commit commodities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and violate campaign finance laws.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) wants Bankman-Fried to forfeit any property derived from these alleged crimes.
According to the DOJ indictment, Bankman-Fried "agreed with others to defraud customers of FTX.com by misappropriating those customers' deposits and using those deposits to pay expenses and debts of Alameda Research, Bankman-Fried's proprietary crypto hedge fund, and to make investments."
This is a developing story and will be updated.