Two thirds of Americans say Sam Bankman-Fried should be convicted for swindling investors and looting customer deposits on his FTX trading platform, according to a poll released on Thursday as he made his first US court appearance.
YouGov pollsters found that 65 percent of respondents said the 30 year-old should face justice, while 56 percent predicted that he would indeed be convicted over the biggest scandal in the history of digital currencies.
‘As Bankman-Fried returns to the US, Democrats and Republicans are united in support of his conviction for his actions while leading FTX,’ researchers said.
‘Members of both parties also are more likely to support than oppose more government regulation of cryptocurrency.’
The survey found that more than a third of respondents had an unfavorable opinion of the 30-year-old, who was arrested in the Bahamas last week, and flown to New York late on Wednesday after deciding not to challenge his extradition.
Republicans have a lower estimation of Bankman-Fried than do their Democratic counterparts, with nearly half of GOP voters viewing him unfavorably. He was a big donor to the Democratic Party and liberal causes.
Still, the survey of 1,500 adults found that more than half of both Democrats and Republicans agree on one thing – that the poorly understood digital currency sector needs to be more regulated by the government.
The poll was carried out between December 17 and 20, in the wake of the collapse of FTX and its sister trading house Alameda Research went bankrupt last month, dissolving a virtual trading business that was valued by the market at $32 billion.
Prosecutors allege Bankman-Fried cheated investors and misused funds that belonged to FTX, which he founded, and Alameda Research customers.
He has been charged with conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering and election finance violations, and was due in court today in New York City.
His mother, Barbara Fried, a law professor at Stanford, arrived at Manhattan Federal Court on Thursday, where her son faced an arraignment for fraud as FTX continues its spectacular collapse.
While he was in en route to New York, the US attorney in Manhattan Damian Williams announced that two of Bankman-Fried’s closest business associates had also been charged and had secretly pleaded guilty.
Williams also gave a stern warning to all crypto crooks to come forward while plea deals are still on the table.
Carolyn Ellison, 28, the former chief executive of Bankman-Fried’s trading firm, Alameda Research, and Gary Wang, 29, who co-founded FTX, pleaded guilty to charges including wire fraud, securities fraud and commodities fraud.
Officials with the FBI and the US Marshals Service – which handles transportation of individuals in US custody – arrived in the island’s capital, before he was transported off the territory overnight.
A plane taxis toward the runway at Odyssey Aviation with FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried on board as he is extradited to the United States on December 21, 2022 in Nassau, Bahamas
US Attorney Damian Williams (pictured) announced Wednesday Fried would be ‘transported directly to the Southern District of New York’ on arrival in the United States
He arrived at Odyssey executive jet facility next to Lynden Pindling International Airport for his flight to the US in darkness at 6.25pm – in a nine-vehicle convoy with SWAT team SUVs, their sirens and lights blazing.
Earlier in the Bahamas – where FTX is headquartered – he had waived his right to challenge the US extradition request, the island nation’s attorney general said.
Officially described as a ‘fugitive’ at the hearing in Nassau’s magistrates court, he was on Wednesday finally given clearance to leave the island chain.
He had left the courthouse more than four hours after the hearing. The disgraced financier was whisked first to jail because Fox Hill had to release him formally before he could leave the Bahamas, according to official sources.
Magistrate Shaka Serville agreed to the move after the man accused of defrauding investors out of $1.8billion in the catastrophic FTX collapse formally told him he wanted a route to the States.
Bankman-Fried is likely to appear before a U.S. federal court in Manhattan on Thursday. At his court appearance, known as an arraignment, he is expected to be asked to enter a plea. The U.S. judge would determine whether to grant him bail, and if so, on what conditions.
Pictured: FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried is escorted from a Corrections Department van as he arrives at the Magistrates Court building for a hearing, in Nassau, Bahamas, Wednesday
The 30-year-old consented to extradition to the United States and was flown to New York overnight on Wednesday. Pictured: Fried is seen leaving court on Wednesday morning
US prosecutors last week charged Bankman-Fried with conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering and election finance violations.
He ‘was orchestrating a massive, years-long fraud, diverting billions of dollars of the trading platform’s customer funds for his own personal benefit and to help grow his crypto empire,’ they said.
Five of the eight counts against Bankman-Fried carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison each.
The SEC separately accused him of violating securities laws.
US Attorney Williams said two key figures in the case – Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang – had pleaded guilty to charges related to the FTX collapse and that they were cooperating with authorities.
Their charges were ‘in connection with their roles in the frauds that contributed to FTX’s collapse,’ he said, but did not provide further details.
Williams’s office did not respond to an AFP request for comment on the charges.
Separately, the SEC and the Commodity Future Trading Commission (CFTC) announced Wednesday they had filed civil suits against Ellison and Wang and that the two were cooperating, which should lead to a more lenient judgment.
An attorney for Ellison did not respond immediately to request for comment.
FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried is escorted out of the Magistrate’s Court on December 21, 2022 in Nassau, Bahamas
Police prepare to transport FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried, after he was placed in the SUV to the left, from the Magistrate’s Court on December 21, 2022 in Nassau, Bahamas
‘Gary has accepted responsibility for his actions and takes seriously his obligations as a cooperating witness,’ Ilan Graff, a lawyer for Wang, said in a statement.
Ellison and Wang signed the plea deals on Monday, court records show, after Reuters and other outlets reported over the weekend that Bankman-Fried would waive his right to fight extradition.
The agreements call for Ellison and Wang to each post a$250,000 release bond, and states that prosecutors may call for a judge to take their cooperation into account at sentencing if they ‘provided substantial assistance in an investigation or prosecution.’
The CFTC estimates that $8 billion in funds were misappropriated from FTX customer accounts.
After its founding in 2019, FTX rose spectacularly to become a leading player in the crypto world.
Bankman-Fried appeared on the covers of finance and tech magazines, and drew in huge investments from prominent fund managers and venture capitalists.
He was also lionized in the halls of politics, becoming a spokesman for the industry on regulatory issues in Washington, and contributing tens of millions of dollars to the Republicans and the Democrats.
But it all imploded dramatically in November when a media report said Alameda’s balance sheet was heavily built on a token created by FTX with no independent value – and exposed Bankman-Fried’s companies as being dangerously interlinked.
Bankman-Fried was arrested at his Nassau apartment on December 12 at the request of federal prosecutors in New York.
A Bahamas permanent resident, he spent the past nine days in prison, weighing his choices before telling the Nassau magistrate court Wednesday that he would not fight extradition.
