FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was denied bail in the Bahamas by a judge. FTX was a failing cryptocurrency exchange.
On Tuesday, US officials accused Mr. Bankman-Fried of committing “one of the worst financial frauds in US history.”
According to Gary Gensler, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the former FTX chief constructed a “house of cards on a foundation of lies.”
Sam Bankman-Fried leaving court in Nassau, The Bahamas after being denied bailSam Bankman-Fried Arrested On Monday For Financial Offences
According to Mr. Bankman-Fried, he will oppose extradition to the US. He was remanded on detention at a jail until February 8 after Bahamas Chief Magistrate JoyAnn Ferguson-Pratt rejected the petition for his release on bail due to a “great” danger of escape. On Monday, police detained him in the Bahamas.
Due to FTX’s US bankruptcy filing last month, many users were unable to access their money. A court document stated that FTX owed its 50 largest creditors over $3.1 billion (£2.5 billion).
The charge that Mr. Bankman-Fried misappropriated billions of dollars in customer money to support his investment trading firm, Alameda, is one of the most severe ones against him.
Although many experts have cautioned that it may only be a small portion of what they placed, it is unknown how much consumers who have funds in the exchange will receive back at the conclusion of bankruptcy proceedings.
In the US, Mr. Bankman-Fried is accused of eight crimes, including conspiracy to commit fraud, money laundering, and wire fraud. He is also accused of defrauding investors who contributed more than $1 billion to the company in civil court.
Authorities have also charged him with breaking campaign funding regulations.
The Southern District of New York’s US Attorney, Damian Williams, said during a news conference on Tuesday that the fraud Mr. Bankman-Fried is accused of is one of the biggest in US history.
Along with charging Mr. Bankman-Fried with scamming lenders, investors, and clients, Mr. Williams claimed the man used “tens of millions” of his illegally obtained wealth to make contributions to both Democratic and Republican candidates for office.
All of this “dirty money” was utilized, according to Mr. Williams, to help Bankman-Fried achieve its goals of buying bipartisan support and influencing Washington’s public policy.
He Denied Intending to Scam Customers
The crypto tycoon has confessed faults in past media interviews but denied intending to scam his consumers.
Additionally, Mr. Bankman-Fried refuted claims that he must have known that Alameda Research, an affiliate trading firm of FTX, was using FTX client funds.
He used to be compared to a young Warren Buffett, the famous US investor. His net worth was projected to be more than $15 billion (£12.1 billion) as recently as late October.
John Ray, the company’s new CEO, told a US congressional committee that a tiny group of “grossly unskilled, non-sophisticated persons” appeared to have been in charge of FTX at the time of its collapse.
He claimed to have observed “an appalling absence of record-keeping and absolutely no internal controls.”
Customers could exchange their regular currency for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin on the FTX market.
Cryptocurrencies are not real money in the classic sense; rather, they are digital assets that function more like securities or investment vehicles, frequently with high levels of volatility.
Because of their anonymity, they have been used for illegal activities including drug trafficking and ransomware attacks, but their defenders claim there is tremendous potential for innovation and freedom from a centralized authority.
Post Source: BBC
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried arrested in Bahamas For Financial Offences
