FTX founder agrees to be extradited from the Bahamas to the US

Sam Bankman-Fried has consented to extradition to the United States, according to an affidavit his lawyer read out Wednesday at a court hearing in the Bahamas.

This paves the way for the founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX to face US billionaire fraud charges.

US officials, including FBI agents, arrived in Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas, on Wednesday morning, a source with knowledge of the matter said.

It was not immediately clear when Bankman-Fried will be flown from the Caribbean country to New York.

Last week, federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged the 30-year-old cryptocurrency tycoon with stealing billions of dollars in assets from FTX clients to cover losses at his hedge fund, Alameda Research, in what U.S. Attorney Damian Williams called “one of the greatest financial frauds in American history”.

Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas, where he lives and where FTX is based, last week following a request for extradition to the US.

Bankman-Fried’s US defense attorney, Mark Cohen, did not respond to a request for comment. Bankman-Fried acknowledged flaws in risk management at FTX, but said he does not believe he bears criminal responsibility.

FTX, valued at US$32 billion (R$166.5 billion), declared insolvency on Nov. 11, and Bankman-Fried stepped down as chief executive the same day.

He has since been held at the Bahamian Department of Corrections in Nassau, known as Fox Hill Prison. The US State Department, in a 2021 report, described conditions at the facility as “harsh”, citing overcrowding, rodent infestation and prisoners using buckets as toilets.

Local officials say conditions have improved since then.