Judge Approves FTX Founder's Extradition to US

According to the Wall Street Journal, Sam Bankman-Fried, the creator of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, will now travel to the United States to face criminal charges connected to the failure of his exchange. The 30-year-legal old's counsel read from an affidavit during court proceedings on Wednesday, noting that Bankman-Fried wanted to make customers whole. Bankman-Fried has defended his innocence, saying he had no idea what had transpired at Alameda Research, his cryptocurrency hedge fund connected to the missing client funds. A disagreement over the weekend between Bankman-Fried's local and US legal teams caused some uncertainty regarding extradition plans. His Bahamas lawyer refused to respond to any queries before agreeing on Monday following a conference call with both concerned parties.

A long list of accusations against Bankman-Fried includes offenses related to fraud, conspiracy, and money laundering. If found guilty of all charges, Bankman-Fried could spend the rest of his life in prison. According to CNN, efforts have been made by Sam Bankman-Fried's attorneys and federal prosecutors to agree on the crypto tycoon's bail. He will most likely avoid state detention with this. Bankman-Fried used FTX's customer deposits as leverage to save the sister trading company. Current FTX and Alameda CEO John Ray III asserted that FTX was an “old-fashioned” embezzlement scheme.