Just hours after his arrest in the Bahamas, Sam Bankman-Fried was charged with violating U.S. securities law, the Securities and Exchange Commission announced Tuesday morning.
The former chief of FTX, the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange, was accused of “orchestrating a scheme to defraud equity investors” in the company, the regulator said.
“FTX operated behind a veneer of legitimacy Mr. Bankman-Fried created by, among other things, touting its best-in-class controls, including a proprietary ‘risk engine,’ and FTX’s adherence to specific investor protection principles and detailed terms of service,” SEC enforcement director Gurbir S. Grewal said in a statement. “But as we allege in our complaint, that veneer wasn’t just thin, it was fraudulent.”
