Sam Bankman-Fried appears to fall asleep during court hearing in which he disagrees to extradition
BAHAMAS, NASSAU: Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX, is said to have dozed off in a courtroom in the Bahamas before disobeying his defense attorney and consenting to be extradited back to the US. The 30-year-old cryptocurrency tycoon is accused of defrauding FTX customers out of billions of dollars to conceal losses at his Alameda Research hedge fund.
According to Reuters, Bankman-Fried "leaned back with his eyes closed and appeared to be awakened by a court official" at one point during the hearing on Monday, December 19. He had previously stated that he would oppose being returned to the US for extradition, but he willingly consented to do so against "the strongest possible legal advice" of his lawyer, Jerone Roberts.
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On December 12, Bankman-Fried was taken into custody in The Bahamas at the request of US officials. There will be another hearing on Wednesday, December 21, but it is unclear when he will be sent to the US.
After widespread customer withdrawals, FTX failed in the first few days of November and filed for bankruptcy on November 11. Although Bankman-Fried acknowledges that FTX experienced risk management problems, he insists that no criminal activity has taken place. He is accused of wire fraud and securities fraud, and if found guilty, he may spend up to 115 years in jail.
As MEAWW reported earlier, Bankman-Fried spoke to Andrew Ross Sorkin via video link at the New York Times' Dealbook Summit on Wednesday, November 30. During the interview, he said he did not knowingly commingle customer funds on FTX with funds at Alameda Research, his proprietary trading firm. "I didn't ever try to commit fraud," said Bankman-Fried, adding that he does not think he has any criminal liability. He further said that he did not know the full scale of Alameda's position on FTX, and claimed that it took him by surprise.
Bankman-Fried has been accused of secretly moving $10 billion of FTX customer funds to Alameda Research, following which the FTX was faced with a liquidity crunch. At least $1 billion in customer funds had reportedly vanished. During the interview, he said he was speaking from the Bahamas but it was against the advice of his lawyers. the former FTX CEO was slapped with federal charges on Tuesday, December 13, 2022. According to the authorities, he misled customers to make money and used some of the "dirty money" to win support for the unregulated market on Capitol Hill.