BREAKING NEWS: SBF the former CEO of FTX arrested in the Bahamas

One goes to sleep and then wakes up and SBF has been arrested. Still not sure if this is all a dream or not.

Arrested in Bahamas

According to multiple sources, SBF was arrested on December 12. And this has also been verified by the Bahamian AG office which had the following to say:

On 12 December 2022, the Office of the Attorney General of The Bahamas is announcing the arrest by The Royal Bahamas Police Force of Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), former CEO of FTX. SBF’s arrest followed receipt of formal notification from the United States that it has filed criminal charges against SBF and is likely to request his extradition, -the Bahamian AG office

As they have indicated, this arrest resulted from criminal charges being filed against SBF in the US. I guess the US either works faster or has a different standard than the Bahamas. As the Bahamian GM vehemently swore in the circle jerk video earlier that they had the best regulations and were actively conducting an investigation. It will be interesting to see what comes of this whole thing.

According to reports SBF has hired heavy-hitting attorney Mark Cohen, the defense attorney who represented one of the few people more heinous and even than SBF allegedly is, Ghislaine Maxwell. There were also reports earlier of ex-Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison Stephanie Avakian, an attorney that worked for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). I guess she went for the whole "know thay enemy" thing. It will be interesting to see if these two end up turning on each other during the trails. As I assume they know where the bodies are buried.

The charges

The charges will apparently be made official later today as the filing will be done in the Southern District of New York.

The New York Times speculates in their post that the charges could include wire fraud, securities fraud, money laundering, and related conspiracy charges. And that does neither seem far-fetched nor particularly surprising if you have followed the case. The SEC will however also be filing their separate charges against SBF in the SDNY courts tomorrow as well.

We commend our law enforcement partners for securing the arrest of Sam Bankman-Fried on federal criminal charges. The SEC has authorized separate charges relating to his violations of securities laws, to be filed publicly tomorrow in SDNY. -Gurbir Grewalm SEC Official

The very last tweet SBF sent out before his arrest was a denial of taking part in a secret chat group on Signal. "The Australian Financial Review has learnt that FTX founders Sam Bankman-Fried and Zixiao “Gary” Wang, along with FTX engineer Nishad Singh and former Alameda Research chief executive Caroline Ellison, used a chat group on Signal in the hope that the information would remain hidden".

If it will play, or any part, in the court proceeding we just have to wait and see. But despite the name of the group. It appears it had a wider porous than simply being dedicated to wire fraud.

All in all the person most disappointed by SBF´s arrest, well other than presumably himself. Seems to be Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA), Chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee.

The public has been waiting eagerly to get these answers under oath before Congress, and the timing of this arrest denies the public this opportunity. While I am disappointed that we will not be able to hear from Mr. Bankman-Fried tomorrow, we remain committed to getting to the bottom of what happened, -Maxine Waters

Yea, because all those previous hearing always get to the heart of the issue.

I would like to hear your thought on this arrest story. Was it done too late, maybe you did not expect him to be arrested at all? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below. If you would like to support me and the content I make, please consider following me, reading my other posts, or why not do both instead.

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Resources

1. https://news.bitcoin.com/bahamian-ag-and-prime-minister-announce-sam-bankman-frieds-arrest-in-the-bahamas/
2. https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2022/12/12/ftx-founder-sam-bankman-fried-arrested-bahamas-says/
3. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/12/business/ftx-sam-bankman-fried-bahamas.html
4. https://financialservices.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx