Sam Bankman-Fried, who founded and led FTX until a liquidity crunch forced the cryptocurrency exchange to declare bankruptcy last month, was arrested on Monday in The Bahamas after being criminally charged by US prosecutors. The exchange, launched in 2019 and based in The Bahamas, filed for bankruptcy Nov. 11 after it struggled to raise money to stave off collapse as traders rushed to withdraw $6 billion from the platform in just 72 hours.
The attorney general's office for The Bahamas said it proceeded with the arrest after receiving formal confirmation of charges against Bankman-Fried, adding it expects he will be extradited to the United States.A statement from The Bahamas Police said Bankman-Fried had been arrested shortly after 6:00 pm Monday (2300 GMT) at his apartment complex, located in Albany, Nassau, in The Bahamas."He was arrested reference to various Financial Offences against laws of the United States, which are also offences against laws of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas," the statement said, adding he was taken into custody without incident and will appear in Nassau's Magistrate Court on Tuesday.