Sam Bankman-Fried appears in court in the Bahamas while the United States awaits his extradition

Sam Bankman-Fred appeared in Bahamas Magistrates Court on Monday amid expectations that the former billionaire will end his opposition to extradition to the United States to face fraud charges related to the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX.

the FTX The company’s founder was arrested in Nassau last week and has been fighting extradition to New York thereafter Manhattan indictment on charges of US federal fraud and money laundering. Before the hearing, a person familiar with the matter said they expected him to drop his fight.

Bankman Fried’s extradition proceedings were delayed on Monday, after his local attorney said he did not know why his client had taken the court. Local news reported that Judge Chaka Cerville postponed the hearing twice to allow Pinkman-Fried to consult with his attorney and contact his US attorneys.

Reuters reported that Bankman-Fried left the courtroom at around 1pm local time without consent to be sent to the United States.

Bahamas prosecutors called the events “incredible,” according to Reuters. The agency reported that Bankman Fried’s local attorney said his client wanted to see the US indictment against him before agreeing to extradite him.

Bankman-Fried arrived at the Nassau courthouse just after 10 a.m. local time, pulled up in a black police van under maximum security from the jail where he was being held. Charges filed against him last week in the Southern District of New York allege he orchestrated “one of the The biggest financial fraud in American history”.

He has denied any wrongdoing.

A court in the Bahamas last week denied Bankman-Fried bail, saying there was a risk he would try to flee. The 30-year-old has since been held at Fox Hill Prison in Nassau. The facility has been criticized in international reports for its overcrowding and lack of sanitation.

Bankman-Fried also faces civil charges from the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which allege that he misled investors and diverted client funds entrusted to the FTX exchange to his own trading firm, Alameda Research.

If convicted, Bankman-Fried could face a maximum sentence of more than 100 years in prison, according to legal experts.

FTX, once valued at $32 billion by high-profile investors including Sequoia Capital and BlackRock, collapsed in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware in November after being unable to handle a wave of client requests to withdraw their funds. A company may have more than 1 million creditors, according to bankruptcy filings.

Bankman-Fried has lived in Nassau, in a $30 million penthouse in the luxury Albany complex, since FTX moved to the Bahamas from Hong Kong late last year after the Caribbean nation put in place a dedicated regulatory regime for digital assets.