Crypto outcast Sam Bankman-Fried has been arrested by authorities in the Bahamas on behalf of the US.
The move is the first signal that the founder of crypto exchange FTX will face criminal charges for the staggering disappearance of at least $1 billion in customer funds.
United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams, made the announcement on Twitter.
“Earlier this evening, Bahamian authorities arrested Samuel Bankman-Fried at the request of the U.S. Government, based on a sealed indictment filed by the SDNY.
We expect to move to unseal the indictment in the morning and will have more to say at that time.”
Prior to his arrest, Bankman-Fried launched a widespread public relations campaign, openly talking about his involvement in the implosion of the once popular and now defunct crypto exchange.
He claims bad bookkeeping is to blame, and says his crypto trading firm Alameda Research essentially placed large market bets using FTX customer funds without his knowledge.
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