The US Securities and Exchange Commission charged FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried on Tuesday with defrauding investors in what regulators called a “house of cards,” just hours before he was scheduled to appear before a magistrate in the Bahamas. Separate charges would be announced later Tuesday by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, according to the SEC. The SEC said in a statement that it would seek a director and officer bar and a penalty against Bankman-Fried, as well as a ban on future securities purchases, offers, and sales except for his personal account and a civil penalty.