Sam Bankman-Fried is the creator of FTX, which was formerly regarded as the most dependable and trustworthy cryptocurrency exchange in the business.

A recent story from CoinDesk found an alarming concentration of self-issued FTT tokens being used as collateral for billions of dollars in loans to Bankman-crypto Fried’s hedge firm Alameda Research, CNBC said. The report and Almeda CEO Caroline Ellison’s tweet activity precipitated a liquidity crisis on the FTX. The promised rescue by Binance did not materialize, and FTX plummeted.

Now under investigation by the House Financial Services Committee in Washington, the committee had been hunting for Bankman-Fried to testify, and he was charged today.

The founder and former CEO of the defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX, as well as FTX, have been under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Department of Justice for several months, amidst allegations that FTX loaned billions of dollars in client assets to its sister firm, the trading firm Alameda Research.

According to a statement from the office of the attorney general of the Bahamas, the big Democratic Party contributor has been detained in the Bahamas after the U.S. filing of criminal charges.

According to the statement, Bahamian officials had not yet received a formal request to extradite Bankman-Fried, but they pledged to “promptly” comply with any demands made by U.S. authorities in line with its own laws and treaties with the U.S. At the time of writing, the substance of the allegations against Bankman-Fried remained unclear.

“The Bahamas and the United States have a shared interest in holding accountable all individuals associated with FTX who may have betrayed the public trust and broken the law,” Prime Minister Philip Davis said in a statement. “While the United States is pursuing criminal charges against Bankman-Fried individually, The Bahamas will continue its own regulatory and criminal investigations into the collapse of FTX, with the continued cooperation of its law enforcement and regulatory partners in the United States and elsewhere,” Biz Pac Review reports.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced that Bankman-Fried was arrested at its request and anticipated that the indictment will be unsealed the next morning. CNBC reported that Bankman-Fried was scheduled to appear before the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed charges against Bankman-Fried today, alleging that he participated in a plan to mislead investors and consumers of the cryptocurrency exchange. Gary Gensler, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, made a statement in which he said, “We allege that Sam Bankman-Fried built a house of cards on a foundation of deception while telling investors that it was one of the safest buildings in crypto.”

Bankman-Fried was detained in Nassau, Bahamas, about 6 p.m. on Monday. According to Bahamian authorities, he was detained for  “various Financial Offences against laws of the United States, which are also offences” in the Bahamas.

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. pic.twitter.com/CRNeLPAbVp

— Latrae L. Rahming (DOC)🇧🇸 (@latraelrahming) December 12, 2022

After George Soros, Bankman-Fried was the second greatest individual donor to the Democratic Party in 2022. On November 11, 2022, a liquidity issue at FTX quickly brought the business into bankruptcy, causing Bankman-wealth Fried’s of more than $16 billion to crumble.

More on this story via The Republic Brief:

Through a series of tweets, Bankman-Fried had been answering the committee’s call for him to appear. In a recent tweet, Bankman-Fried said, “I still do not have access to much of my data – professional or personal. So there is a limit to what I will be able to say, and I won’t be as helpful as I’d like. But, as the committee still thinks it would be useful, I am willing to testify on the 13th.” To which committee member Maxine Waters replied, “Based on your role at CEO and your media interviews over the past few weeks, it’s clear to us that the information you have thus far is sufficient for testimony.” CONTINUE READING…