Former FTX CEO Bankman-Fried agrees to be extradited to US

NEW YORK: Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), former CEO and C0-founder of bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, have reportedly agreed to be extradited to the US.

SBF was arrested from his penthouse in the Bahamas last week and has been officially charged by the US authorities with defrauding equity investors.

According to the New York Times, a local lawyer in the Bahamas for Bankman-Fried said that against "the strongest possible legal advice," SBF is ready to voluntarily agree to extradition to the US.

In the US, he is set to face a long list of criminal and civil charges covering fraud, money laundering, and more.

If convicted, he faces 115 years in jail.

According to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) complaint, since 2019, FTX raised more than $1.8 billion from equity investors, including approximately $1.1 billion from approximately 90 US-based investors.

Bankman-Fried promoted FTX as a safe, responsible crypto asset trading platform, specifically mentioning the platform's sophisticated, automated risk measures to the investors.

However, the complaint claimed that Bankman-Fried allegedly orchestrated a year-long fraud to conceal from FTX's investors.

"We allege that Sam Bankman-Fried built a house of cards on a foundation of deception while telling investors that it was one of the safest buildings in crypto," SEC Chair Gary Gensler had said in a statement.

FTX filed for bankruptcy last month after its possible merger with leading crypto exchange Binance did not materialize.