According to Reuters, Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former CEO of FTX, was denied bail on Tuesday because he constituted a flight risk. The extradition hearing is scheduled for February 8th.
Bankman-Fried, dubbed "SBF," the disgraced crypto industry hero, was arrested in the Bahamas on Monday night after US prosecutors alerted local law enforcement to the serious criminal allegations against him. On Tuesday, the US Department of Justice's Southern District of New York announced an eight-count indictment against Bankman-Fried for fraud, including misrepresenting investors and violating US campaign funding laws.
Tuesday morning, Bankman-Fried appeared in public for the first time since FTX's demise in November at a court in the Bahamas. The counsel for SBF asked for $250,000 in bail.
Before his detention, SBF had a Monday appearance before the MPs set. The court opted to deny bail following a drawn-out hearing in the House Financial Services Committee when members questioned current FTX CEO John J. Ray III about the collapse of the exchange. According to the Wall Street Journal, SBF was prepared to apologise for the failure but instead placed the responsibility on Ray and Binance, another cryptocurrency exchange.
“I would like to start by formally stating, under oath: I fucked up,” the statement said.
At Tuesday’s hearing, legislators were unanimous that the FTX collapse necessitated stricter crypto regulation. McHenry stated that the committee would resume negotiations in January because of the short time remaining before the end of the year.
For incoming Financial Services Chair Patrick McHenry (R-TX), while the arrest of Sam Bankman-Fried is “welcome news,” it still doesn’t get to the bottom of what happened at FTX, why it happened, or who else may be responsible.