Police this morning brought FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried before Chief Magistrate Joyann Ferguson-Pratt at the Magistrate’s Court on South Street in Nassau.
Ferguson-Pratt asked him whether he had had a chance to speak with his lawyers since his arrest yesterday evening.
Bankman-Fried, who is wearing a coat suit with no tie, responded that he had not.
Shortly after 10:30 a.m., Ferguson-Pratt adjourned court for 30 minutes to allow him to speak with his lawyer Jerone Roberts.
Before that adjournment, the magistrate also asked Bankman-Fried whether he had had breakfast and he responded, “Yes”.
Bankman-Fried’s family was in court as well as representatives from the US Embassy.
The now former FTX CEO, whose billion-dollar company went bust last month, was arrested after Bahamian authorities received formal notification from the United States that it has filed criminal charges against him and are likely to request his extradition, the Office of the Attorney General said in a statement last night.
Bahamian police said they arrested Bankman-Fried shortly after 6 p.m. at his apartment complex in the exclusive gated Albany community in southwest New Providence.
He was arrested in reference to various financial offenses against laws of the United States, which are also offenses in The Bahamas, police said.
