Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Freed (C) to file a petition before U.S. District Judge Louis Kaplan in Federal Court in Manhattan, New York, January 3, 2023 arrive at
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of Manhattan Federal Attorney’s Office On Tuesday, it said it had created an FTX task force to track and recover the assets of victims of the bankruptcy of a cryptocurrency exchange company and to handle the investigation. prosecution Relating to companies and other entities.
The announcement came as FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried appeared in U.S. District Court in Manhattan and pleaded not guilty in his criminal case.
“The Southern District of New York is working around the clock to respond to the FTX implosion,” said Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damien Williams in a statement.
Williams added, “It’s time to go all out.”
“We are launching the SDNY FTX Task Force to leverage all SDNY resources and expertise to ensure this urgent work continues until justice is served,” he said. .
Williams’ chief deputy, Andrea Griswold, is leading a task force that draws on prosecutors from the Securities and Commodity Fraud, Public Corruption, Money Laundering and Multinational Criminal Enterprise units.
The Securities and Exchange Commission estimates that customers have lost more than $8 billion as a result of fraud at FTX and Bankman-Fried hedge fund Alameda Research.
When FTX filed for Chapter 11 protection in November, it claimed more than 100,000 creditors and $10 billion to $50 billion in debt, compared to the same range of assets. I was.
Bankman-Fried, 30, is free but under house arrest at his parents’ residence on a $250 million security bond set after being extradited from the Bahamas late last month.
Two of his lieutenants pleaded guilty to multiple fraud charges in Manhattan federal court before he was turned over: 28-year-old former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang. (29 years old).
Ellison and Wang are cooperating in investigating Bankman-Fried and related FTX issues.
