The fiasco surrounding the bankrupt crypto exchange FTX and its former CEO, Sam Bankman-Fried continues. The latest news to break indicates that SBF and ex-FTX CTO Gary Wang used $546 million from Alameda Research to buy stock in Robinhood. The U.S. Justice Department has also launched a criminal probe into the hack following FTX’s bankruptcy declaration and a group of former FTX customers has filed a class-action lawsuit to get their funds back.
SBF and Gary Wang Use Alameda Funds to Purchase Robinhood Shares
An affidavit filed by former FTX CEO, SBF, on the day of his arrest has revealed that he along with FTX co-founder Zixiao “Gary” Wang took out loans from Alameda Research through four promissory notes between April and May this year to fund the purchase of Robinhood Shares. According to the documents, on April 30, loans to the value of $316.6 million and $35.1 million were awarded to SBF and Wang respectively. Additionally, on May 15, two loans to the value of $175 million and $19.4 million were awarded to SBF. Per the details of the affidavit, the loans were used to fund SBF’s Antiguan-based shell company, Emergent Fidelity Technologies Ltd., which purchased a 7.6% stake in Robinhood in May at a price of $648 million at the time.
Justice Department Launches Criminal Probe in $400M FTX Hack
Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that the United States Justice Department has launched an investigation into the alleged hack that drained close to $400 million out of FTX-controlled wallets on the night the exchange filed for bankruptcy. Bloomberg cites persons familiar with the matter. Suspicious activity was recorded in the form of massive outflows out of FTX and FTX US’s wallets and a hack was later confirmed by FTX CEO John Jay Ray. According to Bloomberg’s report, blockchain experts have identified several clues that indicate the hacker was an FTX insider.
FTX Customers File Class-Action Lawsuit
As government agencies continue to probe into FTX and its former executives, a group of former FTX customers has taken matters into their own hands to get their money back first. The lawsuit, filed on December 27, in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, involves four plaintiffs who claim the be representing a class of former FTX customers, which might be up to 1 million customers. The class action seeks to obtain priority rights to return digital assets held by FTX and FTX.US to its customers. The plaintiffs claim that per the FTX User Agreement, the platform was not permitted to use customer funds for its own purposes – which make up the majority of the allegations against FTX and SBF.
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