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Founder and former CEO of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, was reportedly arrested on Monday, 12th December. The Royal Bahamas Police Force officers arrested SBF following the sealed indictment from the United States Attorney shared to the Bahamian government. Until now, there are eight charges said to be put against the crypto exchange founder.
SBF Charged for Using FTX’s Funds
Bankman Fried was charged with wire fraud, conspiracy and campaign finance violations. In addition, there were several securities and commodities related charges.
The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams reported to say that Sam Bankman-Fried along with his co-conspirators were responsible for stealing billions of dollars belonging to FTX customers between 2019 to 2022.
Williams added SBF spent money for his personal benefits. This includes making personal investments and also to cover Alameda Research’s expenses and debts.
SBF also said to have charges for violation of campaign finance laws that were allocated towards illegal contributions for political campaigns. The funding accounts to be in tens of millions of dollars and both candidates and committees of both Democratic and Republican parties were said to be involved.
Heavy Imprisonment for FTX Founder
The press release from the US Attorney’s office reported that the charges of wire fraud, conspiracy of wire fraud and committing money laundering, each of them holds about 20 years imprisonment.
Charges on the FTX founder do not end here as they also stretched to securities and commodities fraud also. Each conspiracy for committing commodities and securities fraud could also make the former trader to witness five years in prison each. The efforts towards defrauding the government and committing violations of campaign finance would also include the same. All this, however, was still subjected to get proved and SBF needed to be convicted.
CNN reported, congressional statutory maximum sentencing guidelines noted that Bankman-Fried could reportedly face imprisonment up to 115 years considering if found guilty for all eight charges.
Bail Denied for Sam Bankman-Fried
Recent updates following the arrest reported that SBF filed for bail within the court. His attorney said during the hearing that he is willing to pay 250K USD for bail and also agrees to conditions. It would include a warning ankle monitor and daily reporting to the authorities. Attorney also said he is facing medical difficulties like insomnia, depression and attention deficit disorder.
However, Chief Magistrate of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas Joyann Ferguson-Pratt did not agree and denied the bail request. The judge cited the risk given SBF’s access to substantial finances. The next hearing is reported to be scheduled for 8th February 2023.
Andrew is a blockchain developer who developed his interest in cryptocurrencies while pursuing his post-graduation major in blockchain development. He is a keen observer of details and shares his passion for writing, along with coding. His backend knowledge about blockchain helps him give a unique perspective to his writing skills, and a reliable craft at explaining the concepts such as blockchain programming, languages and token minting. He also frequently shares technical details and performance indicators of ICOs and IDOs.
