Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried Agrees To Extradition To US

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried might be ready to go to the U.S. to face criminal charges in connection with the collapse of his firm.

An attorney for Bankman-Fried said Monday that the disgraced FTX founder had agreed to be extradited to America, reported the Associated Press. Jerone Roberts, his defense attorney in the Bahamas, said that his client went against the "strongest possible legal advice" in his agreement to be extradited to America, as per Fox Business. Roberts shared that as counsel, they will prepare the "necessary documents to trigger the court," and that Bankman-Fried "wishes to put the customers right, and that is what has driven his decision."

A hearing was stopped Monday when his legal team said that it was premature for him to stand before the court. It was not immediately clear when the extradition could take place. The former crypto billionaire was sent back to a jail in Bahamas Monday, and is now expected back in court later this week, reported CNBC.

The Monday court appearance came just a week after his legal team had initially said that they planned to fight extradition. An extradition hearing had been set for Feb. 8, and the reversal could speed up the timetable for him to be sent to America. Bankman-Fried was arrested last week by Bahamian authorities at the request of the U.S. government. According to U.S. prosecutors, he played a key role in the rapid collapse of FTX and hid its problems from the public as well as investors. Bankman-Fried, 30, illegally used investors’ money to purchase real estate on behalf of himself and his family, said the Securities and Exchange Commission.

If he is sent to New York, he will likely be held, at least for some time, in a federal detention center in Brooklyn. Bankman-Fried, who could potentially spend the rest of his life in jail, had arrived at the courthouse in a black van that was marked Corrections on Monday. Cops quickly took him into an entrance at the back of the courthouse.

Some people who said that they were either FTX customers or crypto enthusiasts came to the courthouse to witness the proceedings. Ben Armstrong, the founder of the BitBoy Crypto website, said that they want him to "feel the weight of what he’s done." He added that he’d come to the courthouse with a dozen people, some of whom had lost their money with Bankman-Fried's firm.