Sam Bankman-Fried arrived at a private Bahamas airport on Wednesday evening to be flown to the US to face a litany of criminal charges after a tumultuous day in the island nation.
The FTX co-founder entered the main entrance of the Odyssey Aviation Nassau facility flanked by armed officers at about 6:30 p.m. local time.
His arrival at the airport appeared to mark the end of a particularly chaotic chapter in the FTX bankruptcy saga.
Bankman-Fried is expected to be taken into custody by U.S. authorities and flown to New York City, where federal prosecutors last week unsealed an eight-count indictment. If convicted of all the allegations, he could face dozens of years behind bars.
“I do wish to waive my rights to formal extradition proceedings,” Bankman-Fried, 30, told a judge earlier on Wednesday, dressed in a blue suit, white shirt and socks and brown leather shoes with laces removed. “I am doing well,” he said earlier when asked by the judge about his condition.
Since being denied bail at an initial court hearing last week, Bankman-Fried has been held in a correctional facility on the outskirts of Nassau known as Fox Hill. The notorious prison is a far cry from the luxury penthouse in the island nation that he’d lived at after setting up the Bahamas as FTX’s headquarters.
Although he initially said that he would fight extradition, Bankman-Fried has more recently indicated in private conversations that he was preparing to return to the U.S. as soon as Monday, Bloomberg News has reported. The change in attitude was in part tied to the expectation that he’ll be able to get bail in the U.S.
A representative for Bankman-Fried declined to comment on conversations that his legal team is having with prosecutors.
Once back in the U.S., he’s likely to be arraigned within hours and his lawyers may present a case for him being granted bail. It wasn’t immediately clear at which American airport Bankman-Fried would land.
