FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried arrested, will he testify before the US Congress?

Sam Bankman Fried, the disgraced founder of crypto-currency exchange FTX, was arrested Monday night as the U.S. government filed a criminal indictment. The arrest came just a day before SBF’s scheduled hearing before the US Congress.

Following SBF’s arrest, House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters, D-Calif. expressed disappointment and surprise at the arrest. In her message after the arrest, Waters said:

“I am surprised to learn that Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas at the behest of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. It is high time that the process to bring Mr. Bankman-Fried to justice is initiated.

However, as the public knows, my staff and I have been working diligently over the past month to secure Mr. Bankman-Fried’s testimony before our Committee tomorrow morning. We received confirmation this afternoon from Mr. Bankman-Fried and his attorneys that he still intended to appear before the committee tomorrow, but he was subsequently arrested.”

Maxine Waters still believes the American public needs to hear directly from Sam Bankman-Fried about the actions that harmed more than one million customers of the FTX crypto-currency exchange.

“The public has looked forward to getting these answers under oath before Congress, and the timing of this arrest deprives the public of that opportunity. While I am disappointed that we will not be able to hear from Mr. Bankman-Fried tomorrow, we remain committed to getting to the bottom of what happened, and the Committee looks forward to beginning its investigation by hearing from Mr. John Ray III tomorrow“, she added.

FTX Founder Arrested

Bahamian authorities decided to arrest the founder of FTX on Monday night following an order from the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. The next step will be his extradition to the United States.

USA Damian Williams: Earlier this evening, Bahamian authorities arrested Samuel Bankman-Fried at the request of the U.S. Government, based on a sealed indictment filed by the SDNY. We expect to move to unseal the indictment in the morning and will have more to say at that time.

– US Attorney SDNY (@SDNYnews) December 12, 2022

The Financial Services Commission will hear from new FTX CEO and restructuring expert John Jay Ray III. In his testimony, Ray will explain how FTX US did not operate separately from the company’s main entity.

Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX are charged with wire fraud, money laundering, securities law violations, and more,