Following the arrest of disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried in the Bahamas on Dec. 12, Richard Levin, partner and chair of the FinTech and Regulation Practice at Nelson Mullins, told CNBC the move marks a new chapter in the FTX saga. While the indictment remained sealed at the time of reporting, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a civil complaint against Bankman-Fried, alleging he defrauded investors by diverting billions of dollars of FTX’s customer funds into his other companies.

Beyond the criminal charges and the civil case brought by the SEC, Levin told the news outlet Bankman-Fried is also facing possible civil actions by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and other regulators.

"For selling unregistered securities without a registration, you could be looking at the Securities and Exchange Commission suing for disgorgement – monetary penalties," he said.

Levin’s practice focuses on the representation of early stage and publicly traded companies in the FinTech space, including investment banks, broker-dealers, investment advisers, peer-to-peer lending platforms, digital currency trading platforms, alternative trading systems (ATSs), exchanges, and custodians.