Police in the Bahamas have arrested former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, the country’s attorney general said on Monday, according to Reuters
The attorney general added that the Bahamas has received formal notification from the United States of criminal charges against Bankman-Fried.
A spokesman for the US Attorney’s office in Manhattan confirmed Bankman-Fried had been arrested in the Bahamas but declined to comment on what the charges were.
FTX, which had been among the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchanges, filed for bankruptcy protection on November 11 in one of the highest-profile crypto blowups after traders pulled $6 billion from the platform in three days and rival exchange Binance abandoned a rescue deal.
The liquidity crunch came after Bankman-Fried secretly moved $10 billion of FTX customer funds to Alameda, Reuters reported, citing two people familiar with the matter.
At least $1 billion in customer funds had vanished, the people said.
Bankman-Fried resigned as FTX’s chief executive officer the same day as the bankruptcy filing.