FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried agreed to extradition in a Bahamian court Wednesday and will now fly to the United States to face federal charges.
Bankman-Fried signed extradition papers Monday after being arrested last week. He faces an eight-count indictment from federal prosecutors in New York.
On Wednesday, Bankman-Fried appeared in court to agree to extradition and will board a government plane to New York at an unreported date, according to ABC News.
“I hereby consent in writing to be extradited without formal extradition proceedings,” Bankman-Fried wrote in a signed affidavit, per ABC News.
He took the witness stand to affirm that his signature was on the affidavit and he had signed it voluntarily.
“I therefore formally commit you to custody while you await your extradition,” Magistrate Shaka Serville said in response.
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Bankman-Fried faces charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud on customers and lenders, conspiracy to commit money laundering, conspiracy to commit commodities and security fraud, a separate wire fraud on customers and lenders, violating campaign finance laws, and conspiracy to defraud the United States.
If convicted, he could face up to 115 years in prison.
FTX, which was founded in 2019, was valued at $32 billion and hailed as one of the largest cryptocurrency firms in the world. However, the firm went bankrupt in November, and it was discovered to have diverted billions of dollars worth of customer finances into Bankman-Fried’s trading firm, Alameda Research, which has also since gone bankrupt.
Bankman-Fried, considered to be a flight risk, is currently being held in the medical ward of the Bahamas’ Fox Hill prison after his request for bail was denied.
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Bankman-Fried previously stated that he was unaware there were any improper uses of funds.
“I really deeply wish that I had taken like a lot more responsibility for understanding what the details were of what was going on there,” Bankman-Fried told ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos in November.
“A lot of people got hurt, and that’s on me,” he said.
