SBF Tried to Prevent the FTX Bankruptcy Process, Said DOJ

With the new developments in the FTX case, new disclosures are surfacing. Recently the US Justice Department reportedly stated that the founder of the Bahamian crypto exchange wanted to stop the bankruptcy process. The firm along with its several subsidiaries went on to file for bankruptcy under the Chapter 11 Bankruptcy code in November 2022.

In the court filing on Monday, the Department of Justice made the claim that SBF attempted to delay the proceedings. Meanwhile he tried to move the funds to the other countries in order to make it under the jurisdiction of foreign regulators. He assumed better treatment of the company’s assets.

According to the federal prosecutors, Sam Bankman-Fried thought of moving the company’s assets to other foreign regulators anticipating their going easy on him. This way he could have regained control over the company and its assets. These efforts, however, are said to have come after the bankruptcy filing.

Once a leading crypto exchange FTX found itself in a liquidity crisis and it immediately halted the withdrawal operations. Following this, as mentioned earlier, the company filed for bankruptcy last year. At the time the company was under the leadership of its founder and former Chief Executive Officer Sam Bankman-Fried who was ousted from his designation. He was also blamed for escalation of the chaos and behind the scandals that took place within the company including misuse of customers funds.

Earlier Bankman-Fried was reported to state that he regretted the decision of the crypto firm’s bankruptcy filing. And he denied the allegations against him about his role in any wrongdoings. After the bankruptcy filing, the leadership for the exchange firm had changed which SBF also criticized.

Citing prosecutors it was also reported that while the accounts over the exchange platform were frozen, SBF unfroze accounts belonging to the Bahamian citizens. This move was as gratitude towards the millions of customers in the region where the company was headquartered.

In a letter to the Attorney General of Bahamas, SBF noted being grateful to the island country for what they had done for the company. In addition, he also apologized for all the mess scattered after the fall of the crypto exchange company.

SBF was arrested by the Bahamian police last year and later extradited to the United States. He was granted a 200 million USD bond bail and reported to live in home detention at his parents residence in California. He was charged with eight counts of criminal charges including wire fraud, etc. which he did not plead guilty yet.