Decentralized Finance (DeFi) analyst BowTiedlguana has revealed that defunct crypto exchange FTX’s co-founder and ex-CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) cashed out $684k soon after his tour of FOX Hill prison. Despite being written in released terms, he may have violated rules knowingly.
Back to back scenes in FTX drama
SBF withdrew a large amount from an exchange situated in Seychelles, while being under house arrest after his extradition to the U.S. He skipped prison with a bail granted on a $250 million bond.
On-chain investigation carried by DeFi educator Bowtiedlguana was presented on Twitter as on December 29, stated in a long Twitter thread:
“Did disgraced crypto founder Sam Bankman-Fried just cash out $684k to a crypto exchange in the Seychelles while under house arrest?
His release conditions are that he not spend more than $1,000 without permission from the court. Let’s examine the evidence on chain.”
As per media reports, the Bahamas Securities Commission seized $3.5 billion of FTX assets after ordered by the country’s Supreme Court. Within hours the exchange filed for bankruptcy, over $370 million of tokens were stolen from the company’s wallet.
As per Wu Blockchain reports, the FTX hackers shifted the stolen funds to a Singapore-based crypto exchange OKX, with help from Bitcoin mixer ChipMixer. Furthermore, an investigation was carried out by DOJ’s National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team. The team traced evidence back to Sam Bankman-Fried in frauds, told Bloomberg.
On December 30, 2022, DeFi analyst also mentioned an address identified in the recent case: “tl;dr all ETH sent from SBF’s public wallet to newly created address 0x7386df2Cf7e9776bCE0708072c27d6a7135D51CB which, within hours, received transfers totaling $367k from 32 known Alameda Research wallets + $322k from other wallets; all sent to a Seychelles CEX or Ren BTC bridge.”
“0x7386 sent $629k to 0x64e9B9cD74A46f71e7631CB033afA6E7849a8683
which received a further $1M from 11 wallets labelled as Alameda Research
5 separate transactions of <51 ETH were used to move funds to newly created wallets then onwards to a Seychelles based exchange.”
“Bankman-Fried was orchestrating a massive, years-long fraud, diverting billions of dollars of the trading platform’s customer funds for his own personal benefit and to help grow his crypto empire,” the SEC said in its complaint.
According to The Washington Post, SEC Chair Gary Gensler once stated Sam “built a house of cards on a foundation of deception while telling investors that it was one of the safest buildings in crypto.”
Nancy J. Allen is a crypto enthusiast and believes that cryptocurrencies inspire people to be their own banks and step aside from traditional monetary exchange systems. She is also intrigued by blockchain technology and its functioning.
Source: https://www.thecoinrepublic.com/2022/12/31/sam-bankman-fried-pockets-684k/