Bahamian authorities said Wednesday that former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried had been extradited to the United States, where he faces criminal charges related to the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange.
The attorney general’s office of the Bahamas said Bankman-Fried had waived his right to challenge the extradition.
Reporters on the scene witnessed Bankman-Fried leaving Magistrate Court in Nassau in a dark SUV earlier Wednesday. The vehicle was later seen arriving at a private airfield by Nassau’s airport, from which he was expected to be flown later Wednesday to the United States. He is due to land at Westchester County Airport in New York and will likely appear in front of a U.S. judge on Thursday.
Bahamian authorities arrested Bankman-Fried last week at the request of the U.S. government. U.S. prosecutors allege he played a central role in the rapid collapse of FTX and hid its problems from the public and investors. The Securities and Exchange Commission said Bankman-Fried illegally used investors’ money to buy real estate on behalf of himself and his family.
The 30-year-old could spend the rest of his life in jail if convicted.
Bankman-Fried was denied bail last Friday after a Bahamian judge ruled that he posed a flight risk. The founder and former CEO of FTX, once worth tens of billions of dollars on paper, was held in the Bahamas’ Fox Hill prison, which has been cited by human rights activists as having poor sanitation and as being infested with rats and insects.
Once Bankman-Fried is back in the U.S., his attorney will be able to request that he be released on bail.