FTX's Bankman-Fried consents to extradition, to head to Bahamas airport soon
NASSAU: Sam Bankman-Fried will be taken to an airport in The Bahamas at 6pm EST (7am, Singapore time) on Wednesday (Dec 22), a person familiar with the matter said, after the FTX founder was taken to prison following a courthouse appearance where he consented to be extradited to the United States.Federal prosecutors in Manhattan last week charged the 30-year-old cryptocurrency mogul with stealing billions of dollars in FTX customer assets to plug losses at his hedge fund, Alameda Research, in what US Attorney Damian Williams called "one of the biggest financial frauds in American history".Bankman-Fried left the courthouse, surrounded by guards with assault weapons, and entered a vehicle, according to Reuters Video.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Bahamas said in a statement that the foreign minister had signed off on allowing Bankman-Fried's extradition to the US.Bankman-Fried was arrested on a US extradition request last week in The Bahamas, where he lives and where FTX is based.
He initially said he would contest extradition, but Reuters and other outlets reported over the weekend that he would reverse that decision.Bankman-Fried decided to agree to extradition in part out of a "desire to make the relevant customers whole", according to an affidavit read in court on Wednesday and dated Dec 20.Dressed in a suit, Bankman-Fried stepped up to the witness box in court, where he spoke clearly and steadily as he was sworn in.“Yes, I do wish to waive my right to such formal extradition proceedings," he told Judge Shaka Serville.Bankman-Fried's defense lawyer, Jerone Roberts, said his client was "anxious to leave".The judge said he was satisfied that all legal requirements for extradition had been met and that
