Sam Bankman-Fried reportedly fell asleep during extradition hearing

Crypto mogul faces up to 115 years in prison if convicted of wire fraud and securities fraud charges

FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried reportedly fell asleep in a Bahamas courtroom before ignoring his defence lawyer and agreeing to be extradited back to the US.

The 30-year-old cryptocurrency mogul faces charges in New York that he stole billions of dollars from FTX customers to cover losses at his Alameda Research hedge fund.

At one point during the hearing on Monday, Mr Bankman-Fried “leaned back with his eyes closed and appeared to be awakened by a court official,” reported Reuters.

He had previously indicated that he would fight extradition back to the US but voluntarily agreed to do so against “the strongest possible legal advice” of his attorney Jerone Roberts.

Mr Bankman-Fried was arrested in The Bahamas on 12 December at the request of US authorities. It is unclear when he will be transferred to the US but a further hearing will be held on Wednesday.

FTX collapsed in early November after mass customer withdrawals and declared bankruptcy on 11 November.

Mr Bankman-Fried has accepted that there were risk-management failures at FTX but says that he has not acted criminally.

He faces wire fraud and securities fraud charges and faces up to 115 years in prison if convicted.

Last month he claimed that he had not “knowingly” misused customers’ money and said he believed they will eventually be made whole again.

He made the comments during an interview with Andrew Ross Sorkin at a conference hosted by The New York Times.

“I didn’t ever want to commit fraud on anyone. I was shocked at what happened this month,” Mr Bankman-Fried said.

Reuters contributed to this report