The FTX brand on a laptop computer display screen.
Andrey Rudakov | Bloomberg through Getty Images
The Securities Commission of The Bahamas says it seized $3.5 billion price of cryptocurrency from collapsed crypto change FTX.
In a media launch late Thursday, the watchdog confirmed the whole sum taken from FTX’s Bahamian subsidiary, FTX Digital Markets, and added that the funds had been moved into its personal digital wallets “for safekeeping.”
The regulator had beforehand confirmed it was holding a few of FTX’s digital belongings however didn’t specify the quantity.
The funds had been valued at greater than $3.5 billion, primarily based on market pricing on the time of switch, based on the fee. The switch befell Nov. 12, the day after FTX filed for Chapter 11 chapter safety within the U.S.
The Bahamian securities fee mentioned the funds are being held on a “temporary basis” till it’s directed by the Bahamas’ Supreme Court to ship them to clients and collectors, or to liquidators of the insolvency property.
The regulator mentioned it took the funds after receiving data from Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX’s disgraced co-founder, regarding cyberattacks on the programs of FTX’s Bahamian unit.
There was “significant risk of imminent dissipation” of the belongings below FTX Digital Markets’ management, it mentioned.
After FTX filed for chapter, it was focused in a suspected hack that noticed $477 million drained from the agency’s crypto wallets. The id of the perpetrator just isn’t but identified.
The Bahamian regulator has been scrutinized over its position within the FTX collapse and subsequent authorized proceedings.
The fee wished to deal with insolvency proceedings for FTX within the Bahamas. But FTX’s U.S. legal professionals contested the transfer, alleging in a Nov. 17 submitting that the regulator coordinated with Bankman-Fried to achieve “unauthorized access” to FTX programs to switch digital belongings to its personal custody.
In response, the Bahamian regulator mentioned that the claims had been “inaccurate,” and that its choice to maneuver the funds was taken to guard the pursuits of shoppers and buyers.
Bankman-Fried, 30, additionally FTX’s former CEO, was arrested within the Bahamas and subsequently extradited to the United States, the place he’s awaiting trial on fees of fraud, conspiracy to commit cash laundering, and conspiracy to defraud the U.S. and violate marketing campaign finance legal guidelines.
He was launched final week on $250 million bail, and has reportedly been receiving guests at his mother and father’ California dwelling, together with “The Big Short” writer Michael Lewis.
Bankman-Fried is predicted to be arraigned and enter a plea in federal court docket in Manhattan on Jan. 3.
Source: www.cnbc.com”