As FTX’s bankruptcy case continued, administrators continued to uncover critical issues that could have contributed to the crash. Remember that founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried mismanaging customer funds leading to the exchange crash last year.
The latest finding by the US Feds FTX Task Force is that SBF and some top executives at Alameda Research took out $3.2 billion in loans and payments from the two platforms. FTX Debtors shared this finding in their latest financial statement filing. This is in addition to other amounts spent on personal expenses.
apart Finding Lost Funds In FTX
Since the collapse of FTX, a new task force and CEO John Ray III has fund tracking of the exchange to determine the misappropriated amount. In one of the record, they disclosed that more than $8 billion had disappeared from the exchange.
Recently, FTX debtors stated that new financial statements filed in Delaware Bankruptcy Court showed that SBF and Alameda’s top executives took billions of dollars in loans and payments. It also announced that more funding is coming from trading house Alameda Research.
Top executives include FTX founder Gary Wang, former director Nishad Singh, and former Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison. The other two recipients are former co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, Ryan Salame, and former co-CEO of Alameda Research, John Samuel Trabucco.
The filing states that Sam Bankman-Fried only received $2.2 billion, the more significant portion of the missing funds. Other details show that Nishad Singh received $587 million while Gary Wang took $246 million. Ryan Salame received $87 million, Caroline Ellison took $6 million, and John Samuel Trabucco took $25 million from the fund.
These amounts are in the form of loans and payments and exclude others who do not fall into these two categories. For example, the top brass spent $240 million to buy a luxury property in the Bahamas and donate to charity and political movement. They also made a number of substantial transfers to other subsidiaries unrelated to FTX.
FTX Management Makes Efforts to Recover Lost Funds
According to its last month’s statement, the new FTX management is making moves to recover funds misappropriated by former executives. It also announced plans to pursue potential actions against those who received the funds.
In particular, FTX debtors send secret messages to political action funds, political figures, and other recipients of payments and contributions made by SBF or other officials. The deadline to recover the funds is February 28, beyond which the Debtor can initiate legal action to obtain the funds.
However, management also stated that it cannot predict the timing and monetary recovery that may be obtained from the move. However, the three executives, Singh, Ellison, and Wang, pleaded guilty to the charges and are cooperating with federal prosecutors.
Featured images from Forbes and charts from Tradingview.com