FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried on Wednesday agreed to be extradited to the United States.
Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas last week and charged with 8 counts of money laundering and fraud right before he was set to testify to Congress about his collapsed Ponzi scheme.
According to CNN, Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyers are negotiating a bail deal to avoid detention while being extradited to the US.
CNN reported:
Lawyers for Sam Bankman-Fried are negotiating with federal prosecutors in New York on a bail arrangement that would enable him to avoid detention, people familiar with the matter told CNN.
FTX crypto exchange founder Bankman-Fried, who oversaw his now-bankrupt empire from a luxury compound in the Bahamas, is expected to return as early as Wednesday to the United States.
In a hearing Wednesday morning, his lawyer in the Bahamas told the court that Bankman-Fried had agreed to extradition to the US, where federal prosecutors have charged him with orchestrating “one of the biggest financial frauds in American history.”
Under questioning by a local magistrate, a disheveled-looking Bankman-Fried confirmed his decision to leave the Bahamas.
“I do wish to waive my right to formal extradition proceedings,” Bankman-Fried said in court.
The 30-year-old appeared to be holding a plastic bag of personal belongings during the hearing. Bankman-Fried gave his occupation as “entrepreneur and executive” and told the magistrate that his address was “a little unclear right now.”
Bankman-Fried last Tuesday told the magistrate he couldn’t go to jail because he’s a vegan and depressed.
The judge denied his bail and he was marched to an overcrowded jail in the Bahamas.
According to the New York Post, the correctional facility SBF was taken to, Fox Hill Prison, is infested with rats and maggots.
Bankman-Fried is facing 115 years in prison.
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