DoJ is Investigating FTX Founder for Sending Funds Out of US
- Department of Justice (DoJ) is reportedly investigating the founder and former CEO of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried.
- DoJ is potentially laying the groundwork for a fraud case against SBF for siphoning off money out of the US.
- This new case, if filed and developed, will be running parallel to a string of multiple cases involving FTX.
- DoJ aims to probe the sister firm of FTX, Alameda Research, and enquiring if the former sent money to the latter.
The regulators are cracking down on crypto firms following the collapse of multiple crypto firms recently and one of the major reasons for the same is to provide a sense of security to the investors. Interestingly, the Department of Justice (DoJ) is reportedly investigating the founder and former CEO of the disgraced crypto exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), for siphoning off funds out of the United States.
As per a report from Bloomberg, the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) is potentially laying the groundwork for a fraud case against FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried as regulators believe that the former crypto billionaire and the “white knight” of the crypto world had possibly siphoned off money out of the US. This new case, if filed and developed, will be running parallel to a string of multiple cases involving the bankrupt crypto exchange.
Authorities believe that SBF was involved in sending the money to the Bahamas from the US via FTX. The investigations are still in the beginning phase. An anonymous informant told Bloomberg that the DoJ met with officials appointed by the court to oversee the bankruptcy proceedings of the crypto exchange. The meeting involved the discussion on the scope of information required to confirm if SBF transferred funds out of the US.
Moreover, it is also crucial to note that the DoJ aims to probe the sister firm of FTX, Alameda Research, enquiring if the former sent money to the latter. While the crypto entrepreneur’s location remains unknown, the founder of the defunct crypto exchange has yet to be sentenced for any of the alleged crimes that he has been accused of recently.
FTX Involved In Terra Collapse?
In the light of regulatory developments, it was recently revealed that SBF was also allegedly involved in controversial events, one of them being the collapse of Do Kwon’s stablecoin project, Terra. Federal prosecutors are now investing if the SBF had anything to do with the collapse of Do Kwon’s master product, the UST-LUNA model.
People familiar with the matter stated that it was these practices from SBF that could’ve initiated the collapse of Terra econsystem and caused a market turmoil, taking down Three Arrows Capital (3AC), Celsius Network, and others.
Interestingly, FTX was reportedly in the final stages of negotiating an endorsement deal with Taylor Swift that was expected to be worth more than $100 million. The Hollywood star was said to have involved in possible tour sponsorship and a ticketing scheme with digital certificates in the form of non-fungible tokens.