Sam Bankman-Fried, former FTX CEO, has reportedly reconsidered his earlier determination to contest extradition and is anticipated to look in court docket within the Bahamas on Dec. 19 to hunt a reversal, Reuters reported on Dec. 17 citing an individual acquainted with the matter.
By consenting to extradition, Bankman-Fried would be capable to seem in a United States court docket. He faces costs of conspiracy to commit wire fraud on prospects and lenders, securities fraud, commodities fraud, cash laundering and conspiracy to defraud the USA and violate the marketing campaign finance regulation.
The transfer follows the Bankman-Fried’s bail denial on Dec. 13 because of the “threat of flight”. The previous CEO’s attorneys argued that SBF doesn’t possess a felony report and was affected by melancholy and insomnia. A second utility for bail was reportedly filed within the Bahamas Supreme Court docket on Dec. 15.
If convicted, Bankman-Fried might get 115 years in jail. Nonetheless, there’s a “lot to play out” within the case till he will get a remaining sentence inside the subsequent few months and even years, authorized commentators informed Cointelegraph.
Relates: FTX ex-staffer: Extravagant expenditures and cult-like worshipping of SBF
A former federal prosecutor, Mark Cohen, has been employed by the previous FTX CEO to behave as his protection legal professional. As reported by Cointelegraph, Cohen is the co-founder of the regulation agency Cohen & Gresser, and was a member of the protection staff in Ghislaine Maxwell’s high-profile baby trafficking case.
Bankman-Fried is being held in Fox Hill Jail, the one jail within the Bahamas. In line with a US State Division report launched in 2021, Fox Hill situations had been “harsh” and overcrowded, with poor sanitation and diet. Detainees had been alleged to have been bodily abused by correctional officers.
Ex-CEO of Alameda Analysis, a sister firm of FTX, Caroline Ellison, has additionally shaped a protection staff. Stephanie Avakian, a former prime crypto regulator with the USA Securities and Change Fee (SEC) will symbolize Ellison in an ongoing federal probe. Avakain is presently chair of the Securities and Monetary Companies on the regulation agency WilmerHale. In her position on the SEC, she expanded cryptocurrency oversight on the Enforcement Division.
