US charges crypto tycoon Bankman-Fried with ‘massive’ fraud

Samuel Bankman-Fried, founder of FTX, testifies during a Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, February 9, 2022. (Saul Loeb/AFP)
Samuel Bankman-Fried, founder of FTX, testifies during a Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, February 9, 2022. (Saul Loeb/AFP)

US prosecutors slap disgraced cryptocurrency tycoon Sam Bankman-Fried with multiple criminal charges for massive fraud as he built his FTX crypto empire.

The charge sheet lands as Bankman-Fried appears in a Bahamas court and indicates that he will fight an extradition request by the United States and asks to be released on bail pending a hearing.

The founder of the FTX platform, who was arrested in the Bahamas yesterday at the request of the United States, is facing a raft of accusations, including from US market regulators who say that the investor knowingly built a fraudulent house of cards.

In their indictment, US prosecutors say Bankman Fried also carried out money laundering, violated campaign finance laws and committed wire fraud since the start of his company in 2019.

Bankman-Fried “was orchestrating a massive, years-long fraud, diverting billions of dollars of the trading platform’s customer funds for his own personal benefit and to help grow his crypto empire,” prosecutors say.

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