FTX made the transfers to SBF and others via the former CEO’s trading firm Alameda Research.
According to the new management of bankrupted crypto exchange FTX, $2.2 billion was transferred to SBF via various entities. In a press release, the company revealed that more than $3.2 billion was sent to Sam Bankman-Fried and other major employees according to a Schedules of Assets and Liabilities and Statements of Financial Affairs filed on March 15.
FTX Transfers Over $3B to SBF and Other Key Employees
Following SBF, who is the largest beneficiary, FTX also transferred $587 million to the director of engineering Nishad Singh. Other key employees that were paid are the former chief technology officer at FTX Trading, Zixiao Gary Wang ($246 million), and ex-CEO Ryan Salame ($87 million). Other beneficiaries include John Samuel Trabucco ($25 million) and Caroline Ellison ($6 million).
Announcing the billions of dollars paid to SBF, FTX noted that the total of $3.2 billion distributed is not included in property, political and charitable expenses. The company mentioned a separate more than $240 million that went into charitable donations, politicians, and luxury property acquisition in the Bahamas by the FTX Debtors. It also said the substantial transfers made to non-Debtor subsidiaries in the Bahamas and other locations. FTX continued:
“Although some of the property purchased with the proceeds of these transfers is already in the control of the FTX Debtors or governmental authorities with whom the FTX Debtors are cooperating, the amount and timing of eventual monetary recoveries cannot be predicted at this time. The FTX Debtors are investigating causes of action against the recipients of these transfers and their subsequent transferees.”
FTX made the transfers to SBF and others via the former CEO’s trading firm Alameda Research.
Allegations Against Former FTX’s Director of Engineering
One of the beneficiaries of the recent payment, Singh, was recently charged with fraud allegations. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) charged the director of engineering with fraud allegations which he pleaded guilty to. Singh’s lawyer had formerly met with the US prosecutors to discuss a possible cooperation agreement. Meanwhile, the executive was confronted with his access to a high-level security code to FTX, which facilitated an over $8 billion transaction that Alameda misspent.
The CFTC wrote that “as a lead and supervising engineer for FTX, Alameda and other entities operated by Samuel Bankman-Fried (“Bankman-Fried”), Singh knew of, maintained and/or had access to certain code features that enabled Alameda to impermissibly access and use over $8 billion in FTX customer assets.”
Furthermore, the SEC accused Singh of withdrawing about $6 million from FTX close to its demise. The director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, Gurbir S. Grewal, stated that Singh’s action was a fraud. He said the former FTX executive and his co-defendants stole customer funds using the software code that Singh helped to create.
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