Sam Bankman-Fried, CEO and Founder of FTX, walks in the vicinity of the U.S. Capitol, in Washington, D.C., September 15, 2022.
Graeme Sloan | Sipa by using AP Photos
Sam Bankman-Fried advised Reuters he is nonetheless in the Bahamas, as rumors swirled right away that the disgraced ex-CEO of the now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX experienced run off to South The usa.
FlightRadar24 tweeted early Saturday morning that the one particular-time crypto billionaire was flying from Nassau to Argentina. The account cited tweets as its sourcing that it was Bankman-Fried aboard the flight in query. (Argentina has an extradition treaty with the U.S. and carried out an extradition as just lately as October, so it is not an ideal location for somebody probably searching to evade authorities in the U.S.)
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Reuters requested Bankman-Fried no matter if he had flown to Argentina, and he replied, “Nope,” by textual content. He added that he remained in the Bahamas, which grew to become his entire-time home past yr.
Speculation more than SBF’s (a nickname offered to the former FTX CEO) whereabouts occur as authorities shut in on Bankman-Fried and his failed crypto empire.
On Thursday, Bankman-Fried tweeted that he would be winding down his buying and selling household, Alameda Exploration, and then on Friday, FTX — the digital asset exchange that Bankman-Fried started in 2019 — submitted for Chapter 11 personal bankruptcy protection in the U.S. That very same day, Bankman-Fried stepped down as CEO. The Monetary Periods is reporting that a day just before submitting for bankruptcy protection, FTX’s world-wide trade had $900 million in “quickly sellable property” towards $9 billion of liabilities.
It was a extremely swift tumble from grace for FTX this 7 days.
Before this calendar year, the exchange was valued at $32 billion, and Bankman-Fried was billed as crypto’s white knight as he bailed out many digital asset businesses. Now, its ex-CEO is reportedly facing probes by the Division of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee. In the meantime, the bankrupt trade seems to have been the goal of a hack right away.
— CNBC’s David Sucherman contributed to this report.
