Swift Bankman-Fried Indictment Points to ‘Avalanche of Evidence’

Federal prosecutors moved at warp speed to charge FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, defying expectations that a criminal case over the cryptocurrency exchange’s collapse would take months or even years to build.

The eight-count indictment against Bankman-Fried unsealed Tuesday came barely a month after FTX filed for bankruptcy protection on Nov. 11. By comparison, Enron Corp. Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Skilling, who was ultimately convicted of fraud and other counts, wasn’t charged until more than two years after that company’s 2001 collapse.

Gene Rossi, a former federal prosecutor, said such a swift indictment suggests federal investigators quickly accumulated a ...