Sam Bankman-Fried Two senior executives working with the company pleaded guilty to fraud charges in the ongoing FTX lawsuit. Meanwhile, Bankman-Fried himself may appear before a US judge earlier today.
The US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced on December 21 that Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang pleaded guilty. Ellison was the former managing director of Alameda Research, and Wang was one of the founders of the FTX exchange.
The two also agreed to cooperate in the lawsuit against Sam Bankman-Fried, according to the New York Times.
Sam Bankman-Fried is currently in FBI custody after he agreed to extradition from the Bahamas on December 21. His lawyers said Bankman-Fried will appear in court as early as possible, possibly on December 22.
Under US law, he must appear in court within two days of arriving in Manhattan.
Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang have pleaded guilty to federal charges and are cooperating in the criminal case against Sam Bankman-Friedhttps://t.co/rryRNZC03m
— Hsaka (@HsakaTrades) December 22, 2022
FTX Crash Continues to be Investigated
Gary Wang“Gary has accepted responsibility for his actions and takes his obligations as a cooperating witness seriously,” commented. According to the report, there was no comment from Ellison’s lawyer.
Prosecutors accuse Sam Bankman-Fried of defrauding customers, investors and lenders. Also, as much as $8 billion in lost funds in the FTX crash are still sought after.
The charges against him include fraud and misdirection using client funds to buy real estate, lend money, make dubious investments through Alameda, and make political donations.
“I want to waive my rights to formal extradition proceedings,” Sam Bankman-Fried told Judge Shaka Serville at the hearing on December 21.
SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said that Ellison and Wang “to support Alameda and submit collateral for margin trading. FTX claimed that they played an active role in the customer asset misappropriation plan”.
1) “As part of their deception, we allege that Caroline Ellison and Sam Bankman-Fried schemed to manipulate the price of FTT, an exchange crypto security token that was integral to FTX, to prop up the value of their house of cards” ~ SEC Chair Gary Gensler.
— Frank Chaparro (@fintechfrank) December 22, 2022
Mart Cilia, FTX’s new chief financial officer, announced that over $1 billion in assets have been identified. Cash assets of 720 million dollars in the USA, 130 million dollars in cash in Japan, 423 million dollars in unauthorized institutions were detected.
Blockchain.com CEO Peter Smith recommends the use of on-chain analytics when tracking FTX funds.
Speaking to Fox Business on Dec. 20, Smith said the banking system is the biggest hurdle when it comes to tracking money.
“The most challenging thing for companies working on this today is that money gets off the chain and into the banking system because they can no longer follow it.”
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