FTX Sues Sam Bankman-Fried And Allies to Recover $1 Billion

On Thursday, July 20, the FTX trading slapped a new lawsuit against disgraced founder Sam Bankman-Fried and other former executives in an effort to recoup more than $1 billion in questionable transactions.

FTX filed the complaint in the Delaware bankruptcy court naming co-founder Gary Wang, who was also the chief technology officer. Besides, the lawsuit also names Nisha Singh; the former director of engineering and Caroline Ellison, who was the co-chief executive of Alameda Research LLC. The lawsuit accuses all these people of fraudulent transactions personally benefitting them, and not the exchange.

FTX accused the defendants of consistently misusing funds to finance luxury condominiums, political contributions, speculative investments, and other personal projects. Thus, it resulted in what the company described as “one of the largest financial frauds in history.”

For instance, the complaint claims that Bankman-Fried and Wang took $546 million from Alameda in May 2022 to buy shares in Robinhood Markets Inc. They allegedly provided Alameda with fake loans, which didn’t need any collateral, and offered lower interest rates than usual. The lawsuit states that the loans were authorized only by Ellison.

SBF, Wang, and Singh are facing charges of using fake loans to acquire stocks from FTX, worth a staggering $250 million at that time.

FTX On A Recovery Mode

During the current and ongoing bankruptcy procedure, John Ray is leading FTX. Under his leadership, the exchange is working to recover money wrongly transferred by the platform and his allies at FTX.

The lawsuits are part of a larger strategy led by FTX’s new CEO, John Ray, and his team to retrieve funds and repay creditors, including customers who lost their cryptocurrency when the exchange collapsed in November. FTX is using bankruptcy rules to recover payments made before filing for Chapter 11.

The current board at FTX has been planning to restart the exchange operations this year. Any success in the fund recovery from SBF and his allies will speed up the process of making a comeback. Bankman-Fried has stated that he is not guilty of the criminal charges. On the other hand, Ellison, Wang, and Singh have pleaded guilty and are cooperating with prosecutors

Bhushan is a FinTech enthusiast and holds a good flair in understanding financial markets. His interest in economics and finance draw his attention towards the new emerging Blockchain Technology and Cryptocurrency markets. He is continuously in a learning process and keeps himself motivated by sharing his acquired knowledge. In free time he reads thriller fictions novels and sometimes explore his culinary skills.

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