Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of failed crypto exchange FTX, faces a litany of civil and criminal charges, including conspiracy to commit money laundering and wire fraud.
Following Bankman-Fried’s arrest in the Bahamas on Monday, three U.S. agencies—the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY)—have all filed charges.
“Earlier this evening, Bahamian authorities arrested Samuel Bankman-Fried at the request of the U.S. Government, based on a sealed indictment filed by the SDNY,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement on Twitter late Monday. That indictment has since been unsealed.
Prosecutors have charged Bankman-Fried with eight counts, according to the indictment, including wire fraud, as well as conspiracies to commit: wire fraud, commodities fraud, securities fraud, money laundering, and fraud against the United States.
The indictment states that some of Bankman-Fried’s alleged crimes date back to at least 2019, when he allegedly deliberately and knowingly “agreed with others to defraud customers of FTX.com by misappropriating those customers’ deposits and using those deposits to pay expenses and debts of Alameda Research,” FTX’s crypto hedge fund, and used those misappropriated funds to make investments.
The CFTC has charged Bankman-Fried with co-mingling FTX’ customer funds with his companies’ funds in violation of the Commodities Exchange Act.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has charged Bankman-Fried with “orchestrating a scheme to defraud investors.”
“We allege that Sam Bankman-Fried built a house of cards on a foundation of deception while telling investors that it was one of the safest buildings in crypto,” SEC Chair Gary Gensler said in a statement.
According to the SEC, Bankman-Fried has been charged with violating the anti-fraud provisions of the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.
The Epoch Times has reached out to Bankman-Fried with a request for comment but did not receive a response.
By Tom Ozimek
