Sam Bankman-Fried has reportedly been arrested in the Bahamas and denied bail, with the magistrate overseeing the case ordering that the FTX founder be remanded in custody until early February. This follows a request that he testify before the House Financial Services Committee on Tuesday about the shocking collapse of FTX, and his subsequent agreement to do so.
Bankman-Fried consented to testify from his location in Nassau, Bahamas, and the DOJ stated that the former FTX CEO will be charged with “Eight Count Indictment with Fraud, Money Laundering, and Campaign finance Offenses.”
Chief magistrate JoyAnn Ferguson-Pratt refused the $250,000 bond requested by Bankman-attorneys, Fried’s citing his “flight risk,” and ordered him to the Bahamian correctional department until February 8.
Daily Beast noted that “…when the DOJ learned that SBF would testify on December 13, it set a December 12 deadline to deliver an indictment to the Bahamas’ attorney general, to avoid the optical embarrassment of SBF testifying to Congress from a mansion in a tropical paradise.”
Evidently, the Democrat-controlled DOJ and House Democrats collaborated to end the hearing by filing charges at the eleventh hour so that Democrats would not be destroyed.
However, the session continued without the star witness, and committee chair Rep. Maxine Waters appeared intent on completing the hearing as quickly as possible, even without allowing a single member to question a witness.
The California congressman has been accustomed to getting her way in the Democratic-controlled Congress. She sought to have her way at the hearing and was visibly annoyed when Republican Rep. Lance Gooden of Texas questioned her authority. Waters attempted to halt the session before Gooden was permitted to examine the current CEO of FTX, John Ray III, as a witness.
Gooden stopped Waters during her concluding remarks in order to remind her of anything. “Chairwoman Waters, Chairwoman Waters, I’ve not had the opportunity to testify — or [rather] to question the witness.”
Unbelievably, Waters ignored Gooden and resumed her concluding remarks after a staff member whispered something into her ear.
Gooden raised his voice and added, “Chairwoman Waters. Parliamentary inquiry. Are all members entitled to question witnesses?”
Following a brief exchange, the very displeased Waters granted Ray five minutes to pose questions.
“Thank you, Madam Chair.” In a sarcastic tone of voice, Waters replied, “You’re certainly welcome, sir.”
This interaction begs the question of why Waters was so eager to close the hearing prior to Gooden’s questioning of the witness.
Lmfao Rep. Maxine Waters tried to end the FTX hearing before Rep. @Lancegooden got a chance to question the witnesses, who had to remind her that all the members of a committee are entitled to questions. pic.twitter.com/wYTxSsLVg3
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) December 13, 2022
More on this story via The Republic Brief:
Perhaps it was because she and many other Democrats were the beneficiaries of Bankman-Fried’s largesse. Although the lion’s share of the party’s second largest donor’s contributions went to Senate Democrats, he had directed $300,000 to members of her committee, according to The Washington Free Beacon. CONTINUE READING…