According to a bankruptcy court filing by the cryptocurrency exchange’s new management on Wednesday night, more than $2bn was transferred from FTX entities to Sam Bankman-Fried.
According to a press release describing financial statements filed in bankruptcy court in Delaware, Bankman-Fried and five members of his inner circle transferred a total of $3.2bn in the form of “payments and loans” to their personal accounts, which is where the funds primarily come from. Alameda Research, a crypto trading hedge fund associated with FTX.
When FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in November, John Ray, FTX’s new chief executive, sought to identify the location of cryptocurrency and other assets that could eventually be returned to millions of FTX customers whose accounts have been frozen. since its fall.
Bankman-Fried is facing a dozen federal charges related to the collapse of FTX, accusing him of securities fraud and looting the platform for personal gain. FTX’s management said on Wednesday that the $3.2bn figure did not include $240mn for “luxury property in the Bahamas”, “political and charitable donations”, and “significant transfers” to subsidiaries. Bankman-Fried received $2.2 billion, the filings show.
An attorney for Bankman-Fried did not immediately return a request for comment.
Three FTX insiders who have pleaded guilty and are cooperating with prosecutors – Nishad Singh, Gary Wang and Caroline Ellison – transferred a total of more than $800mn, according to FTX. Alison, the former head of Alameda, received just $6 million. She told prosecutors that Alameda had access to an “unlimited line of credit at FTX.com” from 2019 to 2022 when she pleaded guilty to the fraudulent changes.
FTX said it was investigating possible ways to recoup the transfers to Bankmann-Fried and her former colleagues but “the amount and timing of the final financial recovery cannot be predicted at this time”.
Two other former FTX executives, Ryan Salame and John Samuel Trebuco, are said to have received more than $100mn together.
At one point, FTX was valued at $40bn, with Bankman-Fried effectively serving as the face of the crypto industry. He has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges and has been detained at his parents’ California home pending a trial scheduled to begin in October.
