The United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) has created the FTX Task Force to “trace and recover” missing customer funds, along with overseeing investigations and prosecutions around the exchange’s collapse, as reported by Cointelegraph.
According to Cointelegraph, the announcement was made by Damian Williams, US attorney, who is the FTX case’s federal prosecutor concerning Sam Bankman-Fried. It is believed that charges from the Manhattan attorney’s office against Bankman-Fried include wire and securities fraud, conspiracy related to wire and securities fraud, money laundering and violation of campaign finance laws.
“The Southern District of New York is working around the clock to respond to the implosion of FTX. It’s an all-hands-on-deck-moment. We are launching the SDNY FTX Task Force to ensure that this urgent work continues, powered by all of SDNY’s resources and expertise until justice is done,” Williams said in a statement.
On the basis of information by Cointelegraph, SDNY stated that the task force team comprises of senior prosecutors from its securities and commodities fraud, public corruption, money laundering and transnational crime enterprise units, which is expected to be needed for “investigation and prosecution of matters related to the FTX collapse.” Furthermore, its “asset forfeiture and cyber capabilities” will be utilised to “trace and recover” the amount which went missing with regard to customer funds.
Moreover, Cointelegraph noted that FTX’s new management roped in financial advisory company AlixPartners in December, 2022, to initiate “asset-tracing” for FTX’s missing digital assets. Reportedly, FTX and associates including Bankman-Fried, co-founder Gary Wang and Caroline Ellison, former CEO, Alameda Research, had been operating from the Bahamas since September, 2021. Previous month, Wang and Ellison pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges in connection with FTX’s collapse.
(With insights from Cointelegraph)