Sam Bankman-Fried was heading back to jail on Monday after a Bahamian judge cut short a hearing where the FTX founder was expected to drop his fight against extradition to the US.
Local news outlets reported that Bankman-Fried’s lawyer requested the adjournment because he hadn’t been properly consulted about the proceedings.
Bankman-Fried was expected to tell Judge Shaka Servillea that he will not fight extradition to the US, where he faces multiple criminal and civil charges related to FTX’s collapse.
Instead, Eye Witness News Bahamas is reported that Bankman-Fried is headed back to jail, with prosecutors and Judge Servillea calling the hearing a waste of time.
The court appearance came just a week after Bankman-Fried’s lawyers had initially said that they planned to fight extradition. An extradition hearing had been scheduled for February 8. The reversal could speed up the timetable for him to be sent to the US.
Bahamian authorities arrested Bankman-Fried last Monday at the request of the US government. US prosecutors allege he played a central role in the rapid collapse of FTX and hid its problems from the public and investors.
The Securities and Exchange Commission said Bankman-Fried illegally used investors’ money to buy property on behalf of himself and his family. The 30-year-old could potentially spend the rest of his life in jail.
Bankman-Fried arrived at the court in a black van marked Corrections, which was escorted by a SWAT vehicle and a police vehicle. Police quickly escorted him into an entrance at the back of the courthouse.
Earlier, a handful of people who said they were either crypto enthusiasts or FTX customers that lost money came to court to witness the proceedings. One man called out “Sam’s a fraud,” as he entered the courthouse.
If he is brought to New York, Bankman-Fried will likely be held, at least temporarily, in a federal detention centre in Brooklyn.
Once he is back in the US, Bankman-Fried’s lawyer will be able to request that he be released on bail. A separate judge in the Bahamas denied Bankman-Fried’s request for bail last week on the grounds he was a flight risk.
FTX filed for bankruptcy protection on November 11 when it ran out of money after the cryptocurrency equivalent of a bank run.
Before the bankruptcy, Bankman-Fried was considered by many in Washington and on Wall Street as someone who could help take them mainstream, in part by working with policymakers to bring more oversight and trust to the industry.
Bankman-Fried had been worth tens of billions of dollars — at least on paper — and was able to attract celebrities like Tom Brady or former politicians like Sir Tony Blair and Bill Clinton to his conferences at luxury resorts in the Bahamas. One prominent Silicon Valley firm, Sequoia Capital, invested hundreds of millions of dollars in FTX.
The new CEO of FTX, John Ray III, told a congressional committee on Tuesday that there was nothing sophisticated about what Bankman-Fried was up to.
“This is just old fashion embezzlement, taking money from others and using it for your own purposes,” he said.
