As Townhall reported Monday evening, FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested by authorities in the Bahamas in preparation for an extradition request from the United States after learning of a federal indictment filed by the U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York.
Notably, the arrest and soon-to-be unsealed federal indictment came just hours before SBF was set to testify before the House Financial Services Committee chaired by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) about the implosion of his crypto business and alleged fraud that sunk FTX into bankruptcy.
Late on Monday evening, Waters said that she was "surprised to hear that Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas at the direction of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York" and reiterated her earlier claim that "it's about time the process to bring Mr. Bankman-Fried to justice has begun."
But, as Townhall reported previously, Waters' stated commitment to bringing SBF "to justice" was not apparent in her initial invitation via Twitter for him to testify:
.@SBF_FTX, we appreciate that you've been candid in your discussions about what happened at #FTX. Your willingness to talk to the public will help the company's customers, investors, and others. To that end, we would welcome your participation in our hearing on the 13th.
— Maxine Waters (@RepMaxineWaters) December 2, 2022
Waters said on Monday night that she and her staff "have been working diligently for the past month to secure Mr. Bankman-Fried's testimony before our committee tomorrow [Tuesday] morning. We received confirmation this afternoon from Mr. Bankman-Fried and his lawyers that he was still planning to appear before the Committee tomorrow, but then he was arrested."
Is this sounding a little convenient yet? Presumably the federal indictment set to be unsealed against SBF on Tuesday morning would preclude congressional testimony — which would also keep SBF from answering questions asked by Republican members on the House Financial Services Committee regarding his role at FTX...as well as a mega-donor to Democrats that saw him become the second-biggest donor to Democrat-aligned PACs and organizations in the midterms behind only George Soros.
It's all speculation for now regarding the timing of his scheduled testimony and his arrest on the eve of his appearance, but it's almost too good to be true if there's any "there" there. Not for nothing, Waters was once caught on camera blowing a kiss to Bankman-Fried following his appearance at a previous congressional hearing.
Waters' statement continued by saying that "Mr. Bankman-Fried must be held accountable" and "the American public deserves to hear directly from Mr. Bankman-Fried about the actions that've harmed over one million people, and wiped out the hard-earned life savings of so many." But that won't happen now that SBF has been arrested.
"While I am disappointed that we will not be able to hear from Mr. Bankman-Fried tomorrow, we remain committed to getting to the bottom of what happened," Waters said.
The United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York said on Monday evening that they intend to unseal the indictment against SBF on Tuesday morning, with more information about their investigation into FTX and Bankman-Fried set to follow.