Sam Bankman-Fried, co-founder and former CEO of crypto asset exchange platform FTX, which filed for bankruptcy last November, has agreed to his extradition to the United States, where he is accused of committing a multimillion-dollar fraud on investors, the BBC reports.
The businessman had been arrested in the Bahamas last week following a notification by US authorities, who charged him with eight counts, including conspiracy to embezzle client funds.
A source close to Bankman-Fried, who denies the allegations, told the BBC that he had agreed to be extradited to the United States.
In an interview with the British network prior to his arrest, the FTX co-founder defended his innocence and assured that he had not knowingly committed fraud. «I don’t think I committed fraud. I didn’t want any of this to happen. I certainly wasn’t as competent as I thought I was,» he said at the time.
FTX announced in mid-November that it had decided to file for Chapter 11 protection under the U.S. Bankruptcy Act to conduct the asset valuation and liquidation process in an orderly manner for the benefit of the parties involved.
According to a court filing, FTX owed its 50 largest creditors almost US$3.1 billion (€2.919 billion).
«Sam Bankman-Fried built a house of cards on a foundation of deceit while telling investors that he was one of the safest buildings in cryptocurrency,» U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Gary Gensler said last week in denouncing the alleged fraud committed by the businessman.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
