Sam Bankman-Fried arrested in Bahamas, charged with “massive” crypto fraud in US
Enlarge / Sam Bankman-Fried testifies during a House Financial Services Committee hearing on December 8, 2021. (credit: Getty Images | Tom Williams)
FTX co-founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas yesterday and will face charges from the US Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and one other US government agency. Damian Williams, the Justice Department's US Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), announced that "Bahamian authorities arrested Samuel Bankman-Fried at the request of the US Government, based on a sealed indictment filed by the SDNY."
The SEC announced today that it charged Bankman-Fried "with orchestrating a scheme to defraud equity investors in FTX Trading" and that investigations into "other securities law violations and into other entities and persons relating to the alleged misconduct are ongoing." The SEC said Bankman-Fried is also facing charges from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), a US agency that regulates derivatives markets.
The criminal indictment, unsealed today, was issued by a grand jury on Friday in US District Court for the Southern District of New York. Bankman-Fried was charged with eight crimes: 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 United States and violate campaign finance laws.