Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the collapsed crypto exchange FTX, was arrested in the Bahamas on Monday. That several international news agencies report. The headquarters of FTX was located on the island group and Bankman-Fried owned several apartments there.
The 30-year-old billionaire was detained at the request of the United States on as yet unknown charges. He is expected to be extradited to the US soon. Bloomberg news agency writes that the investigation primarily focuses on customer money that Bankman-Fried transferred to entities in the Bahamas around the time FTX filed for bankruptcy.
Read also: At crypto market place FTX, chaos reigned: ‘never encountered such a failure’
The major crypto exchange went bankrupt after it ran into major liquidity problems as large numbers of customers tried to withdraw their money from the platform. Bankman-Fried is said to have channeled around $10 billion in customer money to his investment company Alameda through a built-in system. The founder of the platform denies all allegations of fraud and says that there was only an unclear financial situation at FTX.
Investigate Binance
Meanwhile, a former rival of Bankman-Fried also seems to have landed on the radar of the US justice system. Trading platform Binance, which for some time reported to acquire FTX but then backed out, may also be facing major charges.
For example, there would be evidence against the company and managers that money had been laundered. There would be an investigation into the leading Binance for a long time. The indictments may be presented as early as this week.