While cryptocurrencies were going through one of their most difficult days, the collapse of the FTX exchange made things worse. While many users using the FTX exchange were victims, the CEO of the company, Sam Bankman-Fried, resigned by taking full responsibility.
Turkey Financial Crimes confiscates assets of Sam Bankman-Fried and others
FTX, which has many users in Turkey, announced that it has started to refund money to its users with a statement made last week. After all these developments, the transactions made through the banks, electronic money institutions and crypto asset service providers that the FTX exchange works with were suspended for review by MASAK.
After these recent events, Turkey Financial Crimes decided to confiscate the assets of company executive Sam Bankman-Fried and other relevant persons, as a result of the investigation it opened against the crypto money exchange FTX.
The astonishing debt of the bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX has been revealed!
According to the decision taken, the assets of company founder and CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and those related to the subject have been confiscated. The amount confiscated has not yet been disclosed. The statement made by MASAK includes the following statements:
As it is known, in an announcement made by our Agency on November 14, 2022, an investigation was initiated within the framework of the duties and authorities given to our Agency in accordance with the laws and regulations, before the real and legal persons associated with the global crypto asset trading platform operating under the trade name FTX.com, and that the related person and institutions such as banks, electronic money institutions, crypto asset service providers, etc. It was shared with the public that the transactions made to the accounts of obliged parties were suspended within the scope of Article 19/A of the Law No. 5549 on the Prevention of Laundering Proceeds of Crime (5549 p.Kn.), and that the investigations of our Presidency would be concluded promptly and shared with the relevant judicial and administrative authorities.
As a result of the ongoing investigations on the subject by our Agency, at this stage;
- Customer’s trusts are not duly preserved,
- The customer’s trusts are transferred to another person or persons or taken abroad by untrue works and transactions,
- Where non-real crypto assets are bought and sold to customers, supply and demand in the markets are managed in a fictitious manner, contrary to normal market operation.
A strong suspicion of crime has been reached regarding the issues, and our Agency has stated in the Turkish Penal Code No. 5237 against other persons, especially the person named Samuel Benjamin BANKMAN-FRIED, who directly or indirectly controls the real and legal persons with whom FTX.com is related in our country. An application has been made to the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office with a request to initiate an investigation for various antecedent crimes and laundering the property values arising from the crime in Article 282, and to confiscate the suspicious assets within the scope of Article 17 of the Article 5549. As a result of our aforementioned application, a judicial investigation was opened against the suspects and a measure of confiscation of the suspects’ assets was implemented.
It is announced to the public with respect.
According to the filing in the US bankruptcy court, the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange FTX owes about $3.1 billion to its 50 largest creditors. It is stated that the cryptocurrency exchange, which cannot cope with this debt burden, has victimized many users.
After a series of bad news, the cryptocurrency market is experiencing one of its biggest crashes. It is among the information that some other crypto exchanges are in a difficult situation, as well as FTX. So what do you think about FTX and other cryptocurrency exchanges? You can share your views with us in the comments section.