Former FTX executive Sam Bankman-Fried (centre) arrives to plead guilty before U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan federal court, New York, January 3, 2023.
Ed Jones | AFP | beautiful pictures
The Manhattan United States Attorney’s Office said on Tuesday it had created a FTX The task force to track and recover the assets of the victims of the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange company and to handle the investigations and prosecute related to the company and other entities.
The announcement was made as the founder of FTX and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried appeared in United States District Court in Manhattan plead not guilty in his criminal case where he is accusation multiple counts of financial fraud and campaign finance crimes.
“The Southern District of New York is working around the clock to respond to the FTX outbreak,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.
Williams added: “It was a moment of all coming together.
“We are forming the SDNY FTX Task Force to ensure that this urgent work continues, supported by all of SDNY’s resources and expertise, until justice is served.” he said.
Williams’ most senior deputy, Andrea Griswold, is leading the task force, which will draw prosecutors from the Commodity and Securities Fraud, Public Corruption, Money Laundering, and Countermeasures units. transnational criminal enterprise.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has estimated that customers have lost more than $8 billion to fraud at FTX and Bankman-Fried’s hedge fund, Alameda Research.
When FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November, it claimed to have more than 100,000 creditors and liabilities between $10 billion and $50 billion, compared with assets in the same range.
Bankman-Fried, 30, is free but is under house arrest at his parents’ residence, on a $250 million personal bond, set after he was extradited from Bahamas end of last month.
Two of his deputies pleaded guilty in Manhattan federal court to multiple counts of fraud before he was extradited: Caroline Ellison, 28-year-old former Alameda CEO and FTX co-founder Gary Wang, 29 age.
Both Ellison and Wang are cooperating in the investigation of Bankman-Fried and FTX-related matters.
