{"id":24180,"date":"2022-12-13T05:55:32","date_gmt":"2022-12-13T10:55:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=24180"},"modified":"2022-12-13T05:55:32","modified_gmt":"2022-12-13T10:55:32","slug":"sam-bankman-fried-ftx-founder-arrested-in-bahamas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2022\/12\/13\/sam-bankman-fried-ftx-founder-arrested-in-bahamas\/","title":{"rendered":"Sam Bankman-Fried: FTX founder arrested in Bahamas"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has been arrested in The Bahamas, the country’s attorney general has said.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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He is scheduled to appear on Tuesday in a magistrates’ court in the Caribbean country’s capital, Nassau.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Police said Mr Bankman-Fried, 30, was arrested for “financial offences” against laws in the US and The Bahamas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Last month FTX filed for bankruptcy in the US, leaving many users unable to withdraw their funds.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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According to a court filing last month, FTX owed its 50 largest creditors almost $3.1bn (\u00a32.5bn).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Among the most serious allegations against Mr Bankman-Fried is that he used billions of dollars of customer funds to prop up his investment trading company, Alameda.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It is unclear how much people who have funds in the exchange will get back at the end of bankruptcy proceedings – though many experts have warned it may be a small fraction of what they deposited.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The FTX exchange allowed customers to trade normal money for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Cryptocurrencies are not currencies in the traditional sense, but are stored online and act more like investment vehicles or securities – often with a high degree of volatility.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Their anonymity means they have been favoured for criminal activities such as drug dealing and ransomware attacks, but their supporters say there is huge potential for innovation – and independence from governments.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Mr Bankman-Fried was once viewed as a young version of legendary US investor Warren Buffett, and as recently as late October had a net worth estimated at more than $15bn.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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He had become well known in Washington DC as a political donor, mostly to Democratic politicians or groups, supposedly supporting pandemic prevention and improved crypto regulation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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