Sam Bankman-Fried has indicated in a Bahamas courtroom that he will fight extradition to the US, hours after US prosecutors accused the founder and former CEO of FTX of fraud and violating campaign finance laws.

The 30-year-old Mr Bankman-Fried, appearing relaxed and wearing a blue shirt, arrived at a heavily guarded Bahamas court on Tuesday (local time) for his first in-person public appearance since the cryptocurrency exchange’s collapse.

He told the court he will not waive his right to an extradition hearing.

“Mr Bankman-Fried is reviewing the charges with his legal team and considering all of his legal options,” his lawyer, Mark S Cohen, said in a statement.

Mr Bankman-Fried would face long odds fighting extradition to the US on fraud charges, according to legal experts, but he has several legal options available under the Bahamas’ extradition treaty with the US.

In the indictment, prosecutors said Mr Bankman-Fried had engaged in a scheme to defraud FTX’s customers by misappropriating their deposits to pay for expenses and debts and to make investments on behalf of his crypto hedge fund, Alameda Research LLC.

He also defrauded lenders to Alameda by providing false and misleading information about the hedge fund’s condition, and sought to disguise the money he had earned from committing wire fraud, prosecutors said.

Both the US Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission alleged Mr Bankman-Fried committed fraud in lawsuits filed on Tuesday.

“While he spent lavishly on office space and condominiums in The Bahamas, and sank billions of dollars of customer funds into speculative venture investments, Bankman-Fried’s house of cards began to crumble,” the SEC filing said.

The CFTC sued Mr Bankman-Fried, Alameda and FTX on Tuesday, alleging fraud involving digital commodity assets.

Since at least May 2019, FTX raised more than $US1.8 billion ($2.7 billion) from equity investors in a years-long “brazen, multi-year scheme” in which Mr Bankman-Fried concealed that FTX was diverting customer funds to its affiliated crypto hedge fund, Alameda Research LLC, the SEC alleged.

While the public believed Mr Bankman-Fried’s “lies” and sent billions of dollars to FTX, he improperly diverted customer funds to his hedge fund, the SEC said in a court filing.

He continued to divert FTX customer funds even as it was increasingly clear that Alameda and FTX could not make customers whole, the SEC said.

Mr Bankman-Fried has apologised to customers and acknowledged oversight failings at FTX but said he did not personally think he had any criminal liability.

Mr Bankman-Fried founded FTX in 2019 and rode a cryptocurrency boom to build it into one of the world’s largest exchanges of the digital tokens.

Forbes pegged his net worth a year ago at $US26.5 billion. He became a substantial donor to US political campaigns, media outlets and other causes.

A crypto exchange is a platform on which investors can trade digital tokens such as bitcoin.

As legal challenges mount, the US Congress is also looking at crafting legislation to rein in a loosely regulated crypto industry.

John Ray, named CEO of FTX last month, told lawmakers on Tuesday the implosion stemmed from the concentration of control in a small group of grossly-inexperienced individuals, and it will take weeks or months to secure company assets.

He told a Congressional panel FTX will turn over any relevant information to authorities, has shared findings with the SEC and US prosecutors and added he is investigating whether Mr Bankman-Fried’s parents were involved in the operation.

FTX’s collapse was one of a series of bankruptcies in the crypto industry this year as digital asset markets tumbled from 2021 peaks.

A broader downturn in financial markets and rising interest rates prompted investors to abandon riskier assets.

Mr Bankman-Fried was a prominent and unconventional figure.

He sported wild hair, T-shirts and shorts on panel appearances with statesmen such as former US president Bill Clinton and former British prime minister Tony Blair.

He became one of the largest Democratic donors in the US, contributing $US5.2 million to President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign.