On Tuesday, it was announced that Sam Bankman-Fried, former CEO of crypto exchange FTX, had been Uhapšen and indicted. Various fraud and money laundering charges filed against him by three US authorities provide new insight into how he operated.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) states in its žalba: “Bankman-Fried was orchestrating a massive, years-long fraud, diverting billions of dollars of the trading platform’s customer funds for his own personal benefit and to help grow his crypto empire.”
Meanwhile, the Commodity and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) says it sifonirao customer funds for its own use. Over $8 billion in customer deposits are “now missing.” The SDNY has Optuženi Bankman-Fried on eight charges relating to wire fraud on customers and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
Top regulators hit Bankman-Fried with fraud charges
SEC navodi that Bankman-Fried sold fraudulent securities. The 30-year-old hid the extent of FTX’s relationship with his crypto trading firm Alameda Research from investors. They say they were under the impression FTX had the right measures in place to protect customer funds. Alameda allegedly had unlimited ability to take positions, in the end misappropriating billions.
In May, it’s claimed multiple lenders called in loans that were extended to Alameda. It was unable to meet those loans. It had “already taken billions of dollars of FTX customer assets.” When these loans were called, “Bankman-Fried directed FTX to divert billions more in customer assets to Alameda,” the document read.
Hundreds of millions of dollars more are suspected to have been misappropriated from Bahamas-based FTX to fund Alameda’s continued investment and loans to executives. Bankman-Fried insists he wasn’t the decision maker, nor aware of its position. The SEC thinks otherwise; that the entire time he “directed” top decisions frequently to Alameda staff, and had “full access” to databases.