Agreement caps regulator’s investigation into cryptocurrency’s compliance with requirements to prevent money laundering
US-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has reached a $100m settlement with New York’s Department of Financial Services (DFS), the exchange and the regulator said in statements on Wednesday.
The settlement, which includes a $50m penalty, caps the regulator’s investigation into the firm’s compliance with requirements to prevent money laundering.
Continue reading...Crypto exchange founder accused of using deposits to support hedge fund, buy real estate and make political contributions
Fallen crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried is expected to enter a plea of not guilty on Tuesday to criminal charges that he cheated investors and looted billions of dollars at his now bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Bankman-Fried is accused of illegally using FTX customer deposits to support his Alameda Research hedge fund, buy real estate and make millions of dollars in political contributions, in what prosecutors have called a fraud of epic proportions.
Continue reading...Authority says it is holding digital assets until they can be returned to creditors and former customers
The Bahamas securities regulator has said it has seized assets worth $3.5bn (£2.9bn) from the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX and plans to return them to creditors and former customers.
The Securities Commission of the Bahamas said it had transferred all digital assets under the custody or control of FTX Digital Markets, a Bahamas subsidiary of the FTX operation, to its own digital wallets for “safekeeping”.
Continue reading...More than half of Brisbane company’s digital assets were deposited with Sam Bankman-Fried’s exchange
Collapsed Australian crypto exchange Digital Surge is owed $33m by FTX, one of the biggest cryptocurrency platforms in the world before it collapsed in November.
Brisbane-based Digital Surge passed into administration earlier this month with more than half its digital assets deposited with FTX.
Continue reading...Crypto mogul’s lawyer in Bahamas says he wanted to see indictment before consenting to travel to face fraud charges
Fallen crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried has now decided to agree to be extradited to the United States to face fraud charges, two of his lawyers said on Monday, just hours after one of them told a Bahamas judge the FTX founder wanted to see the US indictment against him before consenting.
On Monday afternoon, Jerone Roberts, Bankman-Fried’s criminal defense lawyer in the Bahamas, told media outlets including the New York Times that his client had agreed to be voluntarily extradited and that he hoped Bankman-Fried would be back in court later this week.
Continue reading...SEC says investigation into other alleged misconduct by former CEO of crypto exchange is ongoing
Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and former chief executive of the crypto exchange FTX, has been charged with fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and conspiracy to defraud the US and violate the campaign finance laws.
The eight criminal charges filed by the US attorney’s office for the southern district of New York on Tuesday follow civil charges brought by the US Securities and Exchange Commission charging the 30-year-old former billionaire with defrauding investors in the company.
Continue reading...Chat group on the platform Signal was reportedly used to send end-to-end encrypted information about FTX and its hedge fund
Sam Bankman-Fried and other members of the inner circle of the collapsed crypto exchange FTX allegedly formed a chat group on the encrypted platform Signal under the name “Wirefraud”.
The Australian Financial Review reported that the Wirefraud chat group was used to send end-to-end encrypted information about FTX and its crypto hedge fund, Alameda Research, in the run-up to the implosion of the exchange. According to the newspaper, members of the secret group included Bankman-Fried, his FTX partners Zixiao “Gary” Wang and Nishad Singh, and the CEO of Alameda Research Caroline Ellison.
Continue reading...Former boss of collapsed crypto-exchange says he has duty to try to recoup investors’ lost money
Sam Bankman-Fried, the former boss of the failed crypto-exchange FTX, has said he hopes to start a new business to help pay back the victims of his old firm’s collapse.
Speaking to the BBC from the Bahamas, he said he would “give anything” to be able to begin a new venture in order to recoup his users’ lost investments.
Continue reading...Founder and former CEO says he could talk about what he thinks led to crash and ‘my own failings’
Sam Bankman-Fried is set to testify before Congress next week about the collapse of FTX, as regulators investigate the cryptocurrency exchange he led until its recent demise.
The US House Committee on Financial Services said in a statement on Friday that the panel would hear from FTX’s newly-appointed CEO, John Ray, and from Bankman-Fried on 13 December.
Continue reading...Disgraced CEO said he ‘didn’t knowingly comingle funds’ with FTX’s sister company Alameda Research
“Look, I screwed up,” fallen crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried told a conference in New York on Wednesday, but he maintained he “didn’t ever try to commit fraud” and was “shocked” by the collapse of his businesses.
Bankman-Fried, with glassy eyes and visibly shaking at times, appeared via video conference from a nondescript room in the Bahamas. He told the New York Times’s DealBook Summit he was “deeply sorry about what happened” but consistently argued he did not have a full picture of what was going on within the various branches of FTX, his now bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange, and its offshoots.
Continue reading...Sam Bankman-Fried continues to say firm’s downfall can be solely explained by misplaced $8bn
The founder of the failed crypto exchange FTX has written to its former employees apologising for his role in its collapse and continuing to insist its downfall can be solely explained by a misplaced $8bn (£6.7bn).
In the letter, first published by the industry news site CoinDesk, Sam Bankman-Fried wrote: “I deeply regret my oversight failure. In retrospect, I wish that we had done many many things differently … I’m going to do what I can to make it up to you guys – and to the customers – even if that takes the rest of my life.”
Continue reading...US corporate restructuring expert John Ray says ‘never in my career have I seen such a complete failure of corporate controls’
In a stinging court filing posted on Thursday John Ray III, the new boss of the bankrupt crypto exchange FTX, said the company had suffered an “unprecedented and complete failure of corporate controls”.
Ray has overseen some of the biggest bankruptcies ever, including the collapse of the energy giant Enron, and has 40 years of experience in restructuring companies. He said he had never seen anything as bad as FTX.
Continue reading...President Nayib Bukele bet on bitcoin and its tumbling value has put the Central American country in a financially precarious spot
As crypto-Twitter cascaded with apocalyptic memes about the bankruptcy of cryptocurrency exchange FTX and the sharp drop in the bitcoin price, one account has remained notably silent on the topic.
Unlike in previous crashes, the president of El Savlador, Nayib Bukele, who made bitcoin legal tender a year ago, did not exhort his followers to “buy the dip”. The laser eyes, popular among crypto currency traders, have long since been removed from his Twitter profile.
Continue reading...Bankruptcy filing says ‘questions arose’ about founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s leadership
The collapsed crypto exchange FTX expects to have more than 1 million individual creditors, the company has said in its first bankruptcy filing, scattered across more than 100 companies in the wider group.
According to the filing at the bankruptcy court in the US state of Delaware, where FTX US is based, Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and chief executive, stepped down at 4.30am on Friday, “after consultation with his own legal counsel”.
Continue reading...Entrepreneur at center of FTX scandal put luxury residence up for sale the same day crypto exchange filed for bankruptcy
Sam Bankman-Fried, the crypto trader entrepreneur at the center of the FTX scandal, reportedly put his luxury $40m Bahamas penthouse up for sale on Friday – the same day the cryptocurrency exchange filed for bankruptcy.
Bankman-Fried’s penthouse – “the Orchid”, located in Albany, an exclusive private community in Nassau – was listed by real estate agent Seaside Bahamas at $39,500,000. The offering was first reported on Twitter by Autism Capital.
Continue reading...Founder Sam Bankman-Fried races to find funds to fill multibillion-dollar hole in exchange
The Bahamas securities regulator has frozen the assets of the Bahamas subsidiary of FTX, as the world’s second largest cryptocurrency exchange struggles for survival.
The Securities Commission of the Bahamas said on Thursday it had frozen the assets of FTX Digital Markets and related parties, as well appointing a liquidator for the unit.
Continue reading...The deal was conditional to due diligence of FTX’s balance sheet which raised enough concerns for Binance to back out
Cryptocurrency prices plunged for a second-straight day on Wednesday after crypto exchange Binance announced it was pulling out of its deal to purchase its failing rival FTX Trading.
Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were broadly lower on rumors and news reports that the Binance-FTX deal was in trouble. The CEOs of the two exchanges – Sam Bankman-Freid of FTX and Changpeng Zhao of Binance – had publicly agreed to a merger Tuesday, pending the ability for Binance to perform due diligence of FTX’s balance sheet.
Continue reading...Search for crypto entrepreneur Do Kwon after Luna and UST collapse drags down rival currencies
The crypto entrepreneur Do Kwon has denied being in hiding, even as Interpol issued a “red notice” for his arrest after the collapse of the Terra project he founded.
After South Korean prosecutors said he was “obviously on the run”, Kwon tweeted that he was making no attempt to evade law officers. “I’m writing code in my living room … I’m making zero effort to hide,” he said. “I go on walks and malls, no way none of [crypto Twitter] hasn’t run into me the past couple weeks.”
Continue reading...Proposed reforms previously delayed by Boris Johnson reannounced amid accusations Tories are soft on ‘dirty money’
Companies House will be given new powers to challenge incorrect or fraudulent claims made by kleptocrats and their agents in an economic crime bill that was previously delayed by Boris Johnson a few weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine.
The new bill – the second of two that had to be hurriedly reannounced amid accusations the government had gone soft on dirty money – is backed by the new security minister, Tom Tugendhat.
Continue reading...Do Kwon’s whereabouts are still unknown since a South Korean court issued an arrest warrant earlier this week
Do Kwon, the South Korean founder of the failed cryptocurrency Terra wanted by police, has denied he was on the run after Singapore investigators said he was not in the city-state as had been believed.
Kwon’s whereabouts have been thrown into question after a statement from Singapore police late on Saturday, and his tweets did not reveal where he was.
Continue reading...