FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried agrees to extradition to U.S.

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried on Monday agreed to voluntary extradition to the United States to face a litany of federal charges in connection with the rapid collapse of his cryptocurrency empire.

His decision represents a dramatic reversal from his previous indications that he would contest his removal from the Bahamas, according to the Washington Post.

The company collapsed suddenly in November when investors rapidly lost confidence in the firm and simultaneously attempted to withdraw their stake in it, leaving the cryptocurrency titan unable to fully remunerate its many investors. Bankman-Fried faces charges of fraud in connection with his handling of the company and reports have emerged of suspicious transfers between FTX and its sister organization, hedge-fund Alameda Research.

Bankman-Fried has denied wrongdoing but admitted that the company lacked sufficient risk assessment safeguards to prevent such a complete disaster.

He was arrested in the Bahamas by local authorities last week. Nassau has indicated it will still pursue its own investigation into FTX independent of Washington's.

New FTX CEO John J. Ray III has testified before Congress that the company was almost entirely devoid of internal safeguards or oversight as to its operations, saying "[t]his is really old-fashioned embezzlement... This is just taking money from customers and using it for your own purpose. Not sophisticated at all. Sophisticated perhaps in the way they were able to hide it from people."

He has further decried the firm's extremely poor record-keeping, noting that FTX used QuickBooks, an accounting software package designed for small-to-medium-sized businesses.