Bankman-Fried charges showcase U.S. prosecutor’s growing role in crypto enforcement
In late 2021, Damian Williams took over as Manhattan's chief federal prosecutor, and he made it a priority to "root out wrongdoing in our financial systems."

In late 2021, Damian Williams took over as Manhattan's chief federal prosecutor, and he made it a priority to "root out wrongdoing in our financial systems."
According to conversations with a half-dozen former prosecutors, Williams has now further established his office's expanding position in pursuing financial crimes involving cryptocurrencies with the fraud charges brought earlier this week against Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the defunct FTX exchange.
Harry Sandick, a partner at the law firm Patterson Belknap and a former federal prosecutor for the City of New York, said that "any U.S. attorney is characterized in the public eye by some of the greatest cases that they bring." "The current U.S. attorney is indelibly linked to this."
The indictment against Bankman-Fried places Williams in the position of the prominent businessman whose downfall has garnered public attention and prompted calls for more regulation of cryptocurrency platforms. Bankman-Fried is accused of using billions in stolen customer funds to buy real estate, pay debts for his hedge fund, Alameda Research, and donate to political campaigns.
Bankman-Fried, 30, has admitted there were problems with risk management at FTX but has maintained his innocence of any criminal charges. According to his attorney, he is weighing his legal alternatives. He will be held there while he challenges a request for extradition from the United States, a court in The Bahamas ruled on Tuesday.
Prior to being proposed by President Joe Biden as the district's top prosecutor, Williams served as the task force's leader for securities and commodities in the Southern District of New York (SDNY).
Williams, the first Black U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, graduated from Yale Legal School and worked as a law clerk for both current Attorney General Merrick Garland and former Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens while they both served as appellate judges.
A former employee of the non-fungible token trading platform OpenSea and a former product manager at Coinbase Global Inc., a competitor of FTX, were both charged in Williams' first-ever insider trading prosecutions using digital assets.
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