Sam Bankman Fried, the disgraced founder of crypto exchange FTX, was arrested on Monday evening as the U.S. government filed for criminal indictment. The arrest took place just a day before SBF’s scheduled hearing before the U.S. congress.
Following SBF’s arrest House Financial Services Committee Chair Maxine Waters, D-Calif. expressed her disappointment and surprise over the arrest. In her message after the arrest, Waters said:
“I am surprised to hear that Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas at the direction of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. It’s about time the process to bring Mr. Bankman-Fried to justice has begun.
However, as the public knows, my staff and I have been working diligently for the past month to secure Mr. Bankman-Fried’s testimony before our Committee tomorrow morning. We received confirmation this afternoon from Mr. Bankman-Fried and his lawyers that he was still planning to appear before the Committee tomorrow, but then he was arrested.
Maxine Waters still believes that the American public still needs to hear directly from SBF over the actions that harmed more than a million customers of the crypto exchange FTX.
“The public has been waiting eagerly to get these answers under oath before Congress, and the timing of this arrest denies the public this opportunity. While I am disappointed that we will not be able to hear from Mr. Bankman-Fried tomorrow, we remain committed to getting to the bottom of what happened, and the Committee looks forward to beginning our investigation by hearing from Mr. John Ray III tomorrow,” she added.
Arresting FTX Founder SBF
The Bahamas authorities decided to arrest the FTX founder on Monday evening following an order from the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. The next step would be his extradition to the U.S.
USA Damian Williams: 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.
— US Attorney SDNY (@SDNYnews) December 12, 2022
The Financial Services Committee will hear from the newly appointed FTX CEO and restructuring expert John Jay Ray III. In his testimony, Ray will explain how FTX US didn’t operate separately from the main corporate entity.
SBF and FTX are facing of conducting wire fraud, money laundering, violations of securities laws, and much more,
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