Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, a member of the House Financial Services Committee, told Newsmax he applauds the arrest of Sam Bankman-Fried, former CEO of failed cryptocurrency firm FTX.
"I'm happy he's been arrested," Davidson said Tuesday on "Wake Up America." "I think a lot of people are surprised it took so long."
Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas at the request of the U.S. government, the U.S. attorney's office in New York said Monday.
He is under criminal investigation by the U.S. and Bahamian authorities after the collapse last month of FTX, according to The Associated Press. The firm filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, when it ran out of money after the cryptocurrency equivalent of a bank run.
Before his arrest, he had been scheduled to testify before the financial services panel on Tuesday.
"We were certainly looking forward to asking our questions directly," Davidson said. "Our staff was able to do some preparation for it.
"I hope to see news reports he's back in the United States today awaiting prosecution. You look at Bernie Madoff. He was in custody 24 hours after his fraud was detected and the trial took about seven months and then he was sentenced to 150 years. This is a fraud on that type of scale.
"And I hope that people will pay attention. This is not like all of crypto is somehow bad. It is important to do your due diligence. Even some of the best and brightest got duped by this fraud."
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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