The transfers were made in the form of “payments and loans” to key executives of the Alameda Research hedge fund.
Collapsed crypto asset exchange FTX transferred more than $3.2 billion to its co-founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, and his inner circle, according to communicated the new management of the company.
Of that amount, Bankman-Fried received about $2.2 billion as “payments and loans“, while the rest were divided among five other “founders, mainly from Alameda Research“, the hedge fund of FTX.
The amount does not include, among other things, more than $240 million spent on the purchase of luxury properties or the donations for political campaigns in the USA carried out by Bankman-Fried and his colleagues. Although part of the real estate “acquired with the proceeds of these transfers is already under control” of the relevant authorities, “the amount and timing of the eventual monetary recoveries cannot be predicted at this time,” the statement read.
Access to unlimited credit
Former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison received $6 million of that $3.2 billion. To the plead guilty to fraudEllison revealed that between 2019 and 2022 Alameda had access to “a unlimited line of credit at FTX.com“, reports Financial Times.
FTX, now under new management, is trying to identify the location of funds and assets that they can eventually be returned to their millions of customers, whose accounts were blocked after their bankruptcy.
- The FTX cryptocurrency exchange at the time reached valued at $32 billion and allowed operators to buy and sell digital assets such as bitcoin and ethereum, but it went bankrupt last November, generating repercussions in the world of business and finance, and sparking at least two federal investigations.
- According to the charges filed by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Bankman-Fried would have hidden deviation of FTX client money to his private hedge fund, Alameda Research LLC.
- Thus, he was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and securities fraudmoney laundering and conspiracy to circumvent campaign finance regulations, among other charges.
- However, the founder of the firm pleaded not guilty before a New York court and is in house arrest awaiting trial, programmed for next October.
