Written by Hannah Lang and Tom Hales

(Reuters) – FTX founder Sam Bankman Fried was arrested in the Bahamas on Monday and charged by the US Justice Department on Tuesday with defrauding investors in what regulators called a “brazen multiyear scheme” that ended when his empire filed for bankruptcy last month.

Here’s the latest on the FTX crash and what comes next for Bankman-Fried:

Who is fried Sam Pinkman?

Bankman Fried was raised in California by Stanford law professors Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried.

Bankman-Fried, 30, began his career at Jane Street Capital after graduating from MIT, a choice he said was influenced by his desire to earn money to pursue his interest in effective altruism, a movement that encourages people to prioritize. Donations to charities.

He made a fortune taking advantage of the Bitcoin price differences in Asia and the US after leaving Jane Street in 2017. He eventually started cryptocurrency trading firm Alameda Research in 2017 and founded FTX a year later. Its value in January was estimated at $32 billion. Forbes estimated a year ago that Bankman-Fried’s net worth was $26.5 billion.

Bankman-Fried stepped down as CEO of Alameda in October 2021 and ceded that role to Caroline Ellison and Sam Trabucco, who served as co-CEOs until Trabucco left the company in August.

At a Twitter Spaces event held Dec. 1, Bankman-Fried acknowledged that he and Ellison have been “together for a while,” though he declined to give any other details.

Ellison did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Bankman-Fried, known in financial circles by his initials SBF, was an unconventional character known for his wild hair and T-shirts and shorts. He contributed $5.2 million to President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign and became one of the largest donors to Democratic political candidates.

Why did FTX collapse?

FTX filed for bankruptcy on November 11 after it struggled to raise funds to avoid collapse as traders scrambled to withdraw $6 billion from the platform in just 72 hours and rival exchange Binance abandoned a proposed rescue deal.

Bankman-Fried said Alameda has built a large position in FTX and that with digital asset prices declining this year, Alameda has become increasingly influential.

“Realistically, (there was) no capacity for FTX to be able to liquidate that position and generate whatever was owed to it,” he said at the New York Times DealBook Summit in an interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin on November 30.

The liquidity crisis at FTX came after Bankman-Fried secretly transferred $10 billion of FTX clients’ funds to Alameda Research, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Bankman-Fried told Reuters in November that the company had not “secretly diverted” but had misread its “confusing internal rating”.

He also told Sorkin that he “wasn’t trying to collect money,” but said that when FTX didn’t have a bank account, some customers sent money to Alameda and it was deposited into FTX, which likely led to discrepancies.

Why was he arrested?

Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas at the request of US prosecutors shortly after 6pm on Monday (2300 GMT). The Bahamas Attorney General’s office said it expected his extradition to the United States.

U.S. prosecutors said Bankman-Fried had engaged in a scheme to defraud FTX customers by misappropriating their deposits to pay Alameda’s expenses and debts and make investments.

Prosecutors said he also defrauded Alameda’s lenders by providing them with false and misleading information about the hedge fund’s condition, and sought to hide money he obtained from committing Internet fraud.

Separately, regulators sued Bankman Fried on Tuesday.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that Bankman-Fried defrauded investors in FTX by racking up more than $1.8 billion in stock while concealing that the company was funneling customer funds to Alameda.

Also on Tuesday, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission accused Bankman-Fried and its companies of fraud and making fraudulent misstatements of material facts.

Bankman-Fried said he was pressured into filing for bankruptcy and John Ray’s nomination to be CEO of FTX in November by Sullivan and Cromwell attorneys who were advising his firm at the time, according to a draft of his congressional testimony seen by Reuters. He had prepared to donate on Tuesday.

FTX did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

What will happen to him now?

Bankman Fried is expected to be extradited to the United States where he will be formally brought to trial and a judge will decide whether he will be detained or released until his trial. But Bankman Fried said on Tuesday it would not waive its right to an extradition hearing.

Prosecutors and regulators usually agree that criminal charges, which carry a greater burden of proof, will be pursued while civil cases are halted, according to legal experts.

Bankman-Fried can try to reach a deal involving both criminal and civil cases.

Prosecutors will seek compensation for proceeds from Bankman Fried’s alleged crimes, but identifying the assets can be difficult, according to legal experts.