He is no longer sitting in his fancy penthouse, but in a cell in the Bahamas: Sam Bankman-Fried (30), founder of the crypto company FTX, is said to be responsible for the theft of 37 billion euros. An interesting fact is that media in the EU have so far kept this crime thriller almost completely secret.
On Tuesday, the well-known US crypto scammer Sam Bankman-Fried (alias SBF) was picked up by the police in his neat penthouse in the Bahamas: Until the end, the founder of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX believed that he would not have to fear arrest. Now he is in a cell and is to be extradited to the US authorities.
According to CNN, the Royal Bahamas Police announced that the vegan and “representative of effective altruism” (his own description) was arrested without resistance for wire fraud, wire fraud conspiracy, securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy and money laundering.
The investigating US authorities are likely to accuse Sam Bankman-Fried, who was recently announced as another star guest at a panel discussion with Vladimir Zelensky, of suspected fraud and money laundering, the New York Times confirmed.
Political dimension
The criminal case involving Sam Bankman-Fried is unique simply because of its dimensions: After all, up to 37 billion euros in customer funds are said to have disappeared from FTX – and that only three years after the company FTX was founded. A class action lawsuit is also pending against the Stanford-educated, California-born Bankman-Fried since millions of investors worldwide are concerned about their assets that have been managed via FTX.
But the economic crime also has a political dimension: In a CNN interview, Sam Bankman-Fried openly admitted to cooperating with the government of Vladimir Zelensky. Huge sums of money was transferred anonymously to the warring country via its FTX crypto exchange – critics said that money laundering, embargo violations and secret military aid were also involved.
According to some financial insiders, Ukraine is said to have lost millions and the “Ukrainian partners” are quite upset.
Also already confirmed is that up to 30 million euros are said to have gone to the Democrats, the party of US President Joe Biden, from the private capital of FTX boss Bankman-Fried, which is estimated at 20 billion euros.
Barbara Fried, the mother of the cryptocurrency specialist, led “Mind the Gap”: This is a group that should set up donations for the Democrats, i.e. for the party that is particularly committed to billions in aid to Ukraine and with their representatives lobbying the US government to get involved in the war against Russia at all costs.
In terms of media policy, all outlets that have reported correctly about the suspicions against Bankman-Fried, have been massively attacked. It is striking that mainstream outlets have so far only reported very reluctantly on this case.
Presiding judge JoyAnn Ferguson-Pratt has meanwhile denied SBF’s bail application, stating that he posed the “risk of flight”. She has ordered that the crypto boss be held in custody by the Bahamas Department of Corrections until February 8. According to a defense lawyer, Bankman-Fried planned to oppose his extradition to the US.