Typically, the presumption of innocence applies in Western jurisdictions. However, Sam Bankman-Fried, aka SBF, has already confessed to misappropriation of client funds. Around $9 billion is apparently missing, and every day new evidence of the misuse of client funds is presented on Twitter. Such as the purchase of luxury properties in the Bahamas. SBF has placed the crypto industry under general suspicion. A swift arrest would send a much-needed signal to rescue crypto.
The FTX bankruptcy revealed that Sam Bankman-Fried, his cofounder Gary Wang and two other executives received a total of $4.1 billion in loans from FTX funds via his Bahamas-based Alameda Research trading firm. Of that total, $1 billion went to Bankman-Fried as a personal loan, while $2.3 billion went to an entity he controls, Paper Bird.
SBF has claimed that misuse of client funds is a common practice in the crypto industry. Therefore, he would not have had any problems with it. For the public, it currently looks as if the crypto industry is latently criminal. That is fatal and results in a general crisis of confidence in crypto. It seems to be a lawless and unregulated space dominated by fraudsters and scammers.
A quick arrest of SBF would signal and make it clear to the rest of the crypto players that the laws also apply to the crypto scene and that there is no place for fraud and embezzlement.
