A lawyer for Sam Bankman-Fried, founding father of now-bankrupt crypto trade FTX, instructed a decide within the Bahamas on Monday that the previous billionaire was not but able to comply with be extradited to the US.
Bankman-Fried has seen an affidavit laying out the costs towards him, however has not but learn the indictment filed final week in Manhattan federal court docket accusing him of stealing billions of {dollars} in buyer deposits to plug losses at his crypto hedge fund, Alameda Analysis, mentioned the lawyer, Jerone Roberts.
It got here at a two-hour listening to in Nassau earlier than Justice of the Peace Shaka Serville. When the listening to concluded, Bankman-Fried was given the possibility to talk on the telephone along with his US lawyer with Roberts current. No additional court docket date was set.
Bankman-Fried, wearing a darkish blue jacket and an untucked white shirt, spoke solely to greet the decide and make sure he would converse along with his US counsel. At one level in the course of the listening to, he leaned again along with his eyes closed and gave the impression to be woke up by a court docket official.
After the listening to, Bankman-Fried was remanded again to the custody of the Bahamas’ Division of Corrections. He departed the courthouse in a black van marked ‘Corrections’ carrying a manila folder.
Sam Bankman-Fried is escorted out of the court docket constructing in Nassau on Monday
(REUTERS)
Bankman-Fried was arrested final week within the Bahamas – the place he lives and the place FTX relies – after federal prosecutors in Manhattan accused him of deceptive lenders and buyers, conspiring to launder cash and violating US marketing campaign finance legal guidelines.
Roberts initially instructed Serville that he didn’t know why Bankman-Fried was delivered to court docket on Monday morning. Following a recess, the lawyer mentioned that Bankman-Fried needed to see the indictment earlier than consenting to extradition.
Bankman-Fried has acknowledged risk-management failures at FTX however mentioned he doesn’t imagine he has prison legal responsibility.
The 30-year-old crypto mogul rode a growth within the worth of bitcoin and different digital property to grow to be a billionaire a number of instances over and an influential political donor in the US, till FTX collapsed in early November after a wave of withdrawals. The trade declared chapter on Nov. 11.
Extra reporting by Jared Higgs.
