Key takeaways:
- An FTX Task Force has been formed by the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office to track down and reclaim the assets of crypto exchange victims.
- FTX Task Force will include prosecutors from numerous agencies like the transnational Criminal Enterprises, Public Corruption, Money Laundering, and Securities and Commodities Fraud departments.
In response to founder Sam Bankman-not Fried’s guilty plea, the Feds established an FTX task team to find misplaced customer assets.
The working group was put in place to safeguard people who suffered losses as a result of the disintegration of the platform, and it was legally coordinated by the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office.
What the US government has called an unprecedented scam at FTX may have an impact on more than 1 million clients. Sam Bankman-Fried, the company’s former CEO, is charged criminally with transferring client cash from the cryptocurrency trading platform to FTX’s sister trading arm Alameda Research.
The Manhattan attorney’s office has accused Bankman-Fried of financial crimes, money laundering, wire and securities fraud, and conspiracy to carry out wire and securities fraud.
Williams stated in the declaration that they are establishing the SDNY FTX Mission Force to ensure that this immediate process will continue, operated by all of SDNY’s capabilities and resources until justice has been served. “The Southern District of New York is working around the clock to respond to the implosion of FTX,” Williams said.
The task team, which will include attorneys from the Securities and Commodities Fraud, Public Corruption, Money Laundering, and Transnational Criminal Enterprises departments, is being led by Andrea Griswold, Williams’ senior deputy.
Similar action was taken by FTX; according to individuals with knowledge of the situation, the insolvent exchange’s new management appointed a group of forensic investigators from the advisory firm AlixPartners to assist in locating the billions of dollars that have vanished from the defunct cryptocurrency exchange.
Since September 2021, FTX and key personnel such as Bankman-Fried, co-founder Gary Wang, and former CEO Caroline Ellison of Alameda Research have operated out of the Bahamas, where much of the wrongdoing is said to have been committed.
Looking at the daily developments in the FTX controversy, it is safe to conclude that in the fairly recent chronicle of the cryptocurrency industry, there has never been a fiasco on the magnitude of FTX.
It was once one of the largest and best-known cryptocurrency exchanges in the world but now stands bankrupt with fraud charges.
