News Desk
ISLAMABAD/NEW YORK: As US authorities brought back Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, to New York from the Bahamas to face a trial, a federal prosecutor said late on Wednesday that his two associates have pleaded guilty to criminal charges of fraud and deception related to the collapse of the company.
US attorney Damian Williams said that former CEO of Alameda Research Carolyn Ellison, a trading firm started by Bankman-Fried and co-founded Gary Wang pleaded guilty to charges related to their involvement in the fraud that led to FTX’s collapse.
Bankman-Fried’s FTX cryptocurrency exchange
Bankman-Fried, whose cryptocurrency firm had its headquarters in the Bahamas, earlier surrendered his right to contest extradition to the US, according to the Bahamas attorney general.
FBI takes FTX founder into custody
The 30-year-old FTX founder was formally taken into custody by the FBI before he was shifted to the Southern District of New York.
Last Monday, prosecutors filed charges against Bankman-Fried for conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering, and offences related to election funding.
US authorities say that Bankman-Fried defrauded investors and misappropriated money from exchange and Alameda Research clients.
FTX founder Arrest
Earlier, Bahamas authorities arrested Bankman-Fried for defrauding the crypto exchange’s customers by defrauding their deposits to pay for debts and expenses to make investments on behalf of his own crypto hedge fund, Alameda Research LLC.
Several market participants told Reuters that insurance companies had already been reluctant to guarantee assets and directors and officers protection policies for crypto companies because of slight and scant market-related regulations and the volatile prices of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies since the arrest of Sam Bankman-Fried.
