Democrat Consultant Maxine Waters has expressed disappointment following the arrest of Sam Bankman-Fried, the previous CEO of collapsed cryptocurrency buying and selling platform FTX.
Waters, who’s chairwoman of the Home Committee on Monetary Providers, issued a press release on Monday following Bankman-Fried’s arrest within the Bahamas in relation to an indictment which is because of be unsealed on Tuesday morning.
Bankman-Fried was arrested 24 hours earlier than he was because of seem earlier than the Monetary Providers Committee and he is anticipated to be extradited to the U.S. to face fees being introduced by the U.S. Lawyer for the Southern District of New York.
“I’m shocked to listen to that Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested within the Bahamas on the path of america Lawyer for the Southern District of New York,” Waters’ assertion stated.
“It is about time the method to deliver Mr. Bankman-Fried to justice has begun. Nonetheless, as the general public is aware of, my workers and I’ve been working diligently for the previous month to safe Mr. Bankman-Fried’s testimony earlier than our Committee tomorrow morning,” she stated.
“We acquired affirmation this afternoon from Mr. Bankman-Fried and his legal professionals that he was nonetheless planning to look earlier than the Committee tomorrow, however then he was arrested,” the assertion went on.
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“Though Mr. Bankman-Fried have to be held accountable, the American public deserves to listen to immediately from Mr. Bankman-Fried concerning the actions that’ve harmed over a million individuals, and worn out the hard-earned life financial savings of so many,” Waters stated.
FTX is anticipated to have greater than 1 million particular person collectors, in response to a November chapter submitting.
“The general public has been ready eagerly to get these solutions underneath oath earlier than Congress, and the timing of this arrest denies the general public this chance. Whereas I’m upset that we will be unable to listen to from Mr. Bankman-Fried tomorrow, we stay dedicated to attending to the underside of what occurred, and the Committee appears to be like ahead to starting our investigation by listening to from Mr. John Ray III tomorrow,” Waters’ assertion stated.
John Ray III is the present CEO of FTX and an knowledgeable on chapter who has stated the cryptocurrency buying and selling platform suffered an “unprecedented and full failure of company controls.”
“From compromised programs integrity and defective regulatory oversight overseas, to the focus of management within the fingers of a really small group of inexperienced, unsophisticated and probably compromised people, this example is unprecedented,” Ray wrote in a submitting with the Delaware chapter courtroom in November.
Ray additionally stated {that a} “substantial portion” of FTX’s belongings could possibly be “lacking or stolen.”
FTX filed for chapter safety in November and Bankman-Fried resigned as CEO. Cryptocurrency merchants withdrew $6 billion from the platform over the course of 72 hours main into the morning of November 8.
Newsweek has reached out to the Home Monetary Providers committee for additional remark.
