US may extradite Sam Bankman-Fried amid FTX collapse investigation
Bankman-Fried is already facing a criminal investigation in the Bahamas
The U.S. and the Bahamas have discussed potentially extraditing former crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried to the U.S. for questioning regarding the collapse of his company, Fox Business confirmed Wednesday.
Bankman-Fried's FTX collapsed from being a world-class crypto trading company to filing for bankruptcy last week. Bankman-Fried resides in the Bahamas, where the company is also registered. The top Democratic donor is facing burgeoning calls for investigation in the U.S.
Bankman-Fried has thus far cooperated with Bahamian authorities, submitting for at least one interview with police. The country is conducting its own criminal investigation into the incident.
Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, has also called for Bankman-Fried to testify before Congress. Brown has urged the SEC to more aggressively investigate crypto trading companies like FTX.
Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and CEO of FTX Cryptocurrency Derivatives Exchange. (Jeenah Moon/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)
FTX was the third-largest crypto market in the world at the start of last week when it announced liquidity problems and said it would need a massive infusion of cash to stay afloat.
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Binance, the world's largest crypto market, initially stepped in and offered to buy the company, but it backed out of the deal after looking into FTX's finances.
Reuters, citing two people familiar with the matter, reported that at least $1 billion of customer funds had disappeared and that people told the news outlet that Bankman-Fried had secretly transferred $10 billion of customer funds from FTX to his trading company, Alameda Research.
Chairman Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, questions Saule Omarova, nominee to be Comptroller of the Currency, as she testifies before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 18, 2021 (JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)
The two sources told Reuters that Bankman-Fried — in a meeting that he confirmed took place — shared records with other senior executives that revealed the financial hole.
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Spreadsheets reportedly showed that between $1 billion and $2 billion of the funds were not accounted for among Alameda's assets and that the spreadsheets did not indicate where the money was moved.