Sam Bankman-Fried, an American businessman who founded the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX, was apprehended on Tuesday in the Bahamas.
He would show up in a magistrates court in Nassau, the nation's capital, according to a report from the BBC on Tuesday.
Many customers are unable to access their money as a result of FTX's bankruptcy declaration in the US last month.
Last month, it was revealed in court that FTX owed a total of nearly $3.1 billion (£2.5 billion) to its 50 largest debtors.
Damian Williams, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), tweeted late on Monday night that someone had been arrested.
Williams said that a sealed SDNY indictment was the reason for the arrest.
As recently as late October, Bankman-Fried’s net worth was projected to be over $15 billion, earning him comparisons to famed US investor Warren Buffett at a younger age.
He was well-known in the nation’s capital as a political donor, primarily to Democrats. His donations were made to prevent global pandemics and bolster crypto regulations.
The Attorney General of the Bahamas issued a statement saying that Bankman-Fried would be detained “according to our nation’s Extradition Act.”
“Earlier this evening, Bahamian authorities arrested Samuel Bankman-Fried at the request of the US Government, based on a sealed indictment filed by the SDNY [Southern District of New York].”
In a tweet, the US Attorney’s office in Manhattan indicated that they planned to unseal the indictment the following morning and would provide further comment then.