By Phil Helsel -
NBC News
FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried agreed to be extradited from the Bahamas to the US on Tuesday, a Bahamian court official said.
Paperwork has been filed with the court, and Bankman-Fried will fly to the US on Wednesday, according to Doan Cleare, acting corrections commissioner for the Bahamas Department of Correctional Services.
[Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of cryptocurrency platform FTX, arrested in the Bahamas]
Bankman-Fried, 30, is accused of misappropriating billions of dollars held at FTX, a huge cryptocurrency exchange that crashed in November.
He was arrested in the Bahamas on December 12, and a federal indictment against him for fraud, money laundering and campaign finance offenses was unsealed the following day.
He is also accused of making "tens of millions of dollars in illegal campaign contributions" from Democratic and Republican candidates and campaign committees, according to prosecutors.
Sam Bankman-Fried, the thirty-something millionaire accused of committing one of the biggest frauds in history
Dec 14, 202201:43
The alleged fraud against customers began in 2019, according to the Justice Department.
Gretchen Lowe, acting director of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's Division of Enforcement, has put client losses at more than $8 billion.
At the time, FTX was once valued at $32 billion and was considered the face of the industry.
Bankman-Fried, trained at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) had been hailed as something of a cryptocurrency genius.
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Bankman-Fried's lawyers previously claimed they would fight the extradition.
Once back in the US, Bankman-Fried can apply to be released on bail.
Last week, a judge in the Bahamas denied her request to be released on bail.
If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in jail.
