It has been a long and winding road, but it appears that disgraced cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried is on his way to being extradited from the Bahamas.
The Justice Department (DOJ) agreed to drop charges of illegal campaign finance activity against him in an extradition treaty between the United States and the Bahamas.
Bankman-Fried still faces seven counts related to wire fraud, securities fraud, and money laundering.
Campaign finance records show that Bankman-Fried personally gave millions of dollars to Democratic politicians and causes during the 2020 election cycle alone, including $6 million to the House Majority PAC which supported President Biden’s 2020 campaign.
He also donated $250,000 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and $66,500 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
This revelation raises serious questions about where he acquired these funds and whether they were made using money from FTX customers as many have speculated.
Once hailed as a visionary in the cryptocurrency space, Sam Bankman-Fried’s company quickly collapsed after it was discovered that he had authorized over $2 billion in customer funds towards loans and payments for himself without any authorization or oversight.
It soon became clear that FTX had leveraged itself beyond its limits leading to its downfall.
As such there are serious concerns about how these funds were obtained by Bankman- Fried as well as what could happen if he is allowed back into society with no consequences for his actions.
Now that extradition has been agreed upon it falls on federal prosecutors & attorneys for Bankman Fried to determine terms of his bail including under what conditions he can return home if at all possible given his past criminal behavior.
Assistant U .S Attorney Danielle Sassoon asked Judge Kaplan to remand him into custody while Judge Kaplan said this will be determined at a later time.
Meanwhile, Bankman-Fried is under an interim gag order not speaking about the case.
