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The FTX logo displayed on a laptop screen.
Andrei Rudakoff | Bloomberg via Getty Images
The Bahamas Securities Commission has announced that it has seized $3.5 billion worth of cryptocurrencies from the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX.
In a media release late Wednesday, Watchdog confirmed the total amount taken from FTX Digital Markets, FTX’s Bahamas subsidiary, adding that the funds had been moved to its own digital wallet “for safekeeping.”
The regulator had previously admitted to holding a portion of FTX’s digital assets, but did not disclose the amount.
The funds were valued at more than $3.5 billion, according to the commission, based on market prices at the time of the transfer. The transfer took place on November 12, a day after FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in the US.
The Bahamas’ Securities Commission said the funds would be “temporarily” withheld until the country’s Supreme Court directs the funds to be turned over to customers, creditors or liquidators of bankrupt properties.
The regulator said it received the money from FTX’s disgraced co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried after receiving information about a cyberattack on systems at FTX’s Bahamas unit.
There was a “substantial risk of imminent loss” for assets under FTX Digital Markets’ control, it said.
After FTX filed for bankruptcy, it was targeted in a hack that allegedly exfiltrated $477 million from the company’s cryptocurrency wallets. The identity of the perpetrator is not yet known.
Bahamian regulators have come under scrutiny for their role in the demise of FTX and subsequent legal proceedings.
The Commission wanted to handle FTX’s bankruptcy proceedings in the Bahamas. However, FTX’s U.S. attorneys disputed the move, claiming that he worked with Bankman-Fried to transfer FTX’s digital assets under their control.
A U.S. attorney for FTX has refused to grant access to the company’s computer systems to a court-appointed liquidator in the Bahamas, saying he “does not trust the Bahamian government.”
Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of FTX, was arrested in the Bahamas and then extradited to the United States, where he is awaiting trial on charges of fraud, conspiracy to launder money, and conspiracy to defraud the United States and violate campaign finance laws.
He was released last week on $250 million bail and reportedly had visitors at his family home in California, including “The Big Short” author Michael Lewis. rice field.
Bankman-Fried was arraigned in federal court in Manhattan on January 3 and plans to file a petition, according to a Reuters report.
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