FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has agreed to be extradited to the United States, where he faces eight federal counts of fraud and conspiracy that could land him behind bars for life.
Jerone Roberts, the attorney representing Bankman-Fried in the Bahamas, confirmed that SBF's next court appearance will be to complete the extradition process and is expected to happen this week — possibly as early as Tuesday.
Here's the deal: All signs pointed to a swift extradition to the US after people familiar with SBF's plans said he intended to abandon his fight against returning to the US.
But at Monday's hearing in Nassau, the mood was pure chaos.
The tl;dr version: It seems that SBF's US lawyers worked out an agreement with Bahamian prosecutors to drop the extradition fight, which would have taken months, if not years, to play out.
But SBF's local defense lawyer, Roberts, said he wasn't included in that plan, and claimed prosecutors wouldn't share the US indictment with him. Prosecutor Franklyn Williams dismissed Roberts' accusation, saying that it was "not to be believed."
A representative for SBF's American lawyers told me it was "tough to give specifics while relying on the Bahamian courts."
At the end of the hearing, the understandably frustrated magistrate judge cleared the courtroom so that Bankman-Fried could call his US attorneys with his Bahamian attorney present.
KEY CONTEXT
SBF had initially planned to fight efforts to return him to the United States. He has repeatedly denied knowingly defrauding customers, while admitting to managerial mistakes at FTX, his crypto exchange, and Alameda, its sister trading house (both of which are now bankrupt).
But then he was denied bail in the Bahamas, meaning he wouldn't be able to fight extradition from the comfort of his luxury home. Instead, he'd have to stay in the country's notorious Fox Hill prison — a place the US State Department has described as overcrowded, dirty and lacking medical care. Its crowded cells often lack mattresses and are "infested with rats, maggots, and insects," according to a recent report. Toilet access is, at times, nonexistent.
After a week of that, SBF is ready to face the music on US soil.
To be sure, the federal detention facility in Brooklyn where SBF could end up while awaiting trial isn't exactly the Ritz. Inmates, lawyers and human rights advocates say the conditions inside that facility are also inhumane, citing overcrowding, frequent loss of heating and poor sanitary conditions overall. But he could also make another attempt at bail before a US court... It seems either of those options are preferable to an interminable stay at Fox Hill.
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