- FTX’s former CEO is speculated to be seeking passage to Dubai despite confirming his location as the Bahamas.
- The financial hole in the FTX keeps increasing as users lose hope of recovering funds.
The now-former CEO of FTX crypto exchange, Sam Bankman-Fried is coming under a ton of scrutiny for his involvement in the company’s collapse that sees its users facing the possibility of not recovering their locked-up funds.
Over the weekend, reports emerged that SBF—as he is popularly known online—may be on the run. The speculations held strongly that he was en route to Argentina. Although, the reports have since been debunked.
According to a Reuters report, SBF is still in the Bahamas where FTX is headquartered as confirmed by the 30-year-old himself in a text message. However, further speculation has emerged from Cointelegraph that he is seeking to leave for Dubai.
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The report is also highly speculative about the locations of other FTX and Alameda executives. Citing anonymous sources close to the matter, it revealed that FTX co-founders Gary Wang, and director of engineering Nishad Singh, were also still in the Bahamas while Alameda Research CEO Caroline Ellison was in Hong Kong and may be able to get to Dubai.
FTX customers face a bleak prospect of recovering funds
Amid all the speculations of SBF’s whereabouts and FTX’s filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, several regulators have opened investigations into the collapse. The Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) in California announced that it is already investigating FTX.
Market participants have also been increasing calls for the SBF to be brought to justice and FTX users to be made whole. Ethereum blockchains co-founder Vitalik Buterin has spoken up about SBF saying that the “public figure” deserves what he is getting. Buterin maintained that one of SBF’s offenses against the crypto industry is “full-on compliance virtue signaling” which is a crime that cuts deeper than whitewashing even.
Similarly, Attorney John Deaton, the founder of a media outlet that covers U.S. legal and regulatory news for cryptocurrencies Crypto Law, also commented that there is no justification for SBF stealing “$10 billion of customer funds” using subterfuge.
Meanwhile, more reports on the situation of FTX’s books are making the possibility of users accessing their funds look even bleaker. FTX’s new CEO and chief of restructuring John Jay has confirmed that the platform was hacked.
A report by Reuters reveals that around $1 billion to $2 billion of FTX user funds are unaccounted for aside from the estimated $10 billion the exchange loaded to Alameda. Meanwhile, there is speculative information that FTX also invested user funds in real estate in the Bahamas.
BREAKING: FTX bought $74 million of real estate in the Bahamas this year – The Block
💥WITH YOUR MONEY! 🤨
— Bitcoin Archive 🗄🚀🌔 (@BTC_Archive) November 13, 2022
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