Disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has been arrested in the Bahamas after being indicted in the US.

Code King of Shame Sam Bankman-Fried arrested by authorities US prosecutors filed criminal charges Monday night in the Bahamas.

30-year-old detained after Bahamian government received formal notice of the charges from the United States against him, according to the Office of the Attorney General of the Bahamas.

Damien Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, confirmed Bankman-Fried’s arrest and said the indictment would be opened on Tuesday.

“Earlier this evening, Bahamian authorities arrest Samuel Bankman-Fried at the request of the U.S. government, Based on a sealed indictment filed by SDNY,” Williams tweeted“We plan to open the indictment in the morning and have much more to say at that point.”

The charges include wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, securities fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and money laundering, The New York Times reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.

The shaggy-haired former billionaire has been under investigation by the Justice Department since FTX was one of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges. collapsed and filed for bankruptcy protection Nov. 11.

Federal prosecutors are reportedly scrutinizing how FTX handled customer funds and alleged transfers of hundreds of millions of dollars from the United States to the Bahamas before and after filing for bankruptcy.

they again, Bankman-Fried manipulated the cryptocurrency market by coordinating transactions.Earlier this year, it led to the collapse of the TerraUSD cryptocurrency.

Aside from the charges, the Securities and Exchange Commission, which has also launched an investigation, said Monday that regulators have approved charges related to Bankman-Fried’s alleged securities law violations.

SEC officials said in a statement that the charges will be filed publicly in the Southern District of New York on Tuesday.

Bankman-Fried, who stepped down as FTX CEO on the day it filed for bankruptcy, has repeatedly denied personal responsibility for the platform’s demise and distanced himself from fraud accusations, claiming he “never attempted fraud.” .

News of his arrest comes a day before U.S. lawmakers are scheduled to question Bankman-Fried about the catastrophic collapse of FTX on Capitol Hill in Washington DC on Tuesday.

Hours before he was arrested, Bankman-Fried said he would testify remotely before the House Financial Services Committee.

The Bahamian government’s attorney general’s office said Monday it plans to help extradition Bankman-Fried to the United States.

It wasn’t immediately clear how quickly that would happen.

“The Bahamas and the United States have a shared interest in holding accountable all individuals associated with FTX who may have betrayed public trust and violated the law,” Bahamas Prime Minister Philip Davis said. said after being arrested.

“Although the United States has separately filed criminal charges against the SBF, the Bahamas will pursue its own regulatory and criminal investigation into the collapse of FTX with continued cooperation of law enforcement and regulatory partners in the United States and elsewhere. continue.”

with post wire