Nassau, Bahamas CNN —
FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has agreed to be extradited to the United States, where federal prosecutors have charged him with eight counts of fraud and conspiracy.
Jerone Roberts, the attorney representing Bankman-Fried in the Bahamas, confirmed Monday afternoon that his client “has agreed to be voluntarily extradited to the United States of America.”
In an interview with a local reporter obtained by CNN, Roberts said Bankman-Fried’s next court appearance will be to complete the extradition process.
Bankman-Fried is expected to appear in court again Tuesday morning, according to a spokesman for the Fox Hill prison where he is being held in the Bahamas.
Nassau Magistrate Court opens at 9:30 am ET, and the first hearings begin at 10:00 am ET. Bankman-Fried’s hearing is expected to be one of the first of the day.
Bankman-Fried, the 30-year-old former crypto celebrity, was arrested a week ago at his luxury residence in the Bahamas. Federal prosecutors in New York charged with defrauding customers and investors at FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange he founded in 2019.
In a series of media interviews and tweets since FTX filed for bankruptcy last month, Bankman-Fried has admitted mismanagement while denying knowingly defrauding clients or investors.
Roberts told reporters Monday afternoon that there is a possibility that Bankman-Fried, known as SBF, could be extradited the same day as his next court appearance.
Roberts wanted to emphasize that “Bankman-Fried wants to straighten out the clients and this is what has driven his decision to be voluntarily extradited to the United States.”
Earlier Monday, extradition proceedings for Bankman-Fried appeared stalled as her Bahamian lawyer and local prosecutors argued bitterly in court.
Prosecutors said a deal had been reached with Bankman-Fried’s American lawyers to allow her extradition to the United States to face federal charges. But Bankman-Fried’s Bahamas lawyer, Roberts, said he himself had not been part of that deal.
Roberts claimed that prosecutors would not share the US indictment with him and that he should not have to “fish on the Internet”. In response, prosecutor Franklyn Williams dismissed Roberts’ accusation, saying it was “not to be believed”.
Bankman-Fried, who was wearing the same navy suit he was wearing last week when he was arrested, was expected to drop his extradition fight, removing a major hurdle to bringing him back to US soil to face trial on multiple counts of fraud and conspiracy.
But Monday’s hearing left observers in the dark about what will happen next.
The courtroom was packed during the hearing, mostly with US embassy officials and members of the crypto community who want Bankman-Fried to remain detained in the Bahamas as punishment, rather than being sent to the United States .
At the end of the hearing, the frustrated magistrate overseeing the case cleared the courtroom so Bankman-Fried could call her American lawyers with her Bahamian lawyer present.
Bankman-Fried was returned to a prison in the Bahamas where he has been held for the past week.
Its US legal team did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Earlier in the day, a representative for his lawyers declined to elaborate on the timeline, saying it was “difficult to give details while relying on the Bahamian courts.”
Bankman-Fried had initially planned to fight efforts to bring him back to the United States. But after a week in Nassau’s notorious Fox Hill prison, he seems less interested in maintaining what would likely have been a years-long battle to avoid extradition.
The US State Department reported that conditions at Fox Hill are harsh. The report criticized the prison for overcrowding, poor food and inadequate sanitation and medical care. The overcrowded cells often had no mattresses and were “infested with rats, worms and insects,” according to the report.
Bankman-Fried is expected to reapply for bail once he is in US custody. If denied bail, he would be held at a federal detention center in Brooklyn, New York. Inmates, lawyers and human rights advocates say conditions inside the facility, which houses mostly pretrial defendants who are presumed innocent, are also inhumane, citing overcrowding, frequent loss of heating and poor conditions healthcare in general.
– CNN’s Jaide Timm-Garcia contributed to this report