SBF Arrested in Bahamas

Sam Bankman-Fried, founder and former chief executive officer of bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX, was arrested yesterday in the Bahamas at the request of the US government. He is expected to be extradited to the US, while his arrest charges are expected to be unsealed today, according to the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York (see statement via Twitter). Bankman-Fried is under criminal investigation by US and Bahamian authorities following FTX's collapse last month. FTX, once valued at $32B, is headquartered in the Bahamas, where Bankman-Fried also resides. The one-time cryptocurrency billionaire's arrest comes a day before he was set to testify in front of Congress, along with the company's new CEO, John Ray III (10 am ET, see here), who oversaw Enron's 2001 bankruptcy. FTX filed for bankruptcy following a report that it had lent and lost billions in customer deposits to its sister investor trading firm, Alameda Research. FTX and its affiliates have about $1.24B in cash balances but owe $3.1B to its largest 50 creditors. Read about FTX's balance sheet here.