FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried charged with defrauding investors

Footage showed Bankman-Fried being escorted out of the Magistrate Court building in Nassau and getting inside a car followed by patrols. Earlier in the day, prosecutors were also seen leaving the courthouse.

The former FTX CEO, who was arrested in the Bahamas on Monday (December 12), was denied bail by a magistrate judge citing a "great" risk of flight.

He was ordered remanded to a correctional facility in the island nation until Feb. 8, where he will initially hold in the medical department, according to a local official.

The day's events capped a stunning fall from grace in recent weeks for the 30-year-old, who amassed a fortune valued at over $20 billion as he rode a cryptocurrency boom to build FTX into one of the world's largest exchanges before it abruptly collapsed this year.

Bankman-Fried has previously apologized to customers and acknowledged oversight failings at FTX, but said he does not personally think he has any criminal liability.

Earlier on Tuesday, US Attorney Damian Williams in New York said Bankman-Fried made illegal campaign contributions to Democrats and Republicans with "stolen customer money," saying it was part of one of the "biggest financial frauds in American history."

Bankman-Fried faces a maximum sentence of 115 years in prison if convicted on all eight counts, prosecutors said, though any sentence would depend on a range of factors.