Federal prosecutors yesterday said that two associates of FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried had pleaded guilty for their roles in fraud that contributed to the cryptocurrency exchange’s collapse and were cooperating in the ongoing investigation, the Wall Street Journal reported. Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a video posted on Twitter that Caroline Ellison, the former chief executive of Alameda Research, and Gary Wang, FTX’s former chief technology officer, had both pleaded guilty to criminal violations. The announcement came shortly after Mr. Bankman-Fried had been transferred to U.S. custody in the Bahamas, where he was arrested last week. Read more.
In related news, Sam Bankman-Fried told a Bahamian court yesterday that he has agreed to be extradited to the U.S. to face criminal charges related to the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, the Associated Press reported. The former FTX CEO appeared at a Magistrate’s Court and is expected to head to Odyssey Aviation to return to the United States, according to Bahamian news organization Our News. 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 potentially spend the rest of his life in jail. Bankman-Fried was denied bail on 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, is being held in the Bahamas’ Fox Hill prison, which has been has been cited by human rights activists as having poor sanitation and as being infested with rats and insects. Read more.
