By Geoffrey Smith
Investing.com -- FTX transferred over $3 billion to founder Sam Bankman-Fried and his inner circle before its collapse in November, according to a statement issued by the bankrupt exchange's administrators late on Wednesday.
FTX Trading Ltd. issued late on Wednesday what are known as Schedules of Assets and Liabilities and Statements of Financial Affairs (the "Schedules and SOFAs") for all of the entities involved in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. The 'Schedules and SOFAs' filed describe $3.2 billion in payments and loans to founders, chiefly from Alameda Research the hedge fund which FTX vainly tried to keep afloat as its bets on cryptocurrency went wrong last year.
The payments included $2.2B to Sam Bankman-Fried himself, around $587M to Nishad Singh, $246M to Gary Wang and $6M to Caroline Ellison, Bankman-Fried's sometime girlfriend, whom he installed as CEO of Alameda.
All of the above except Bankman-Fried have already pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges, and are likely to receive more lenient sentences in exchange for cooperation in the prosecution of Bankman-Fried.
The new management of FTX, under John J. Ray, noted that this didn't include $240M spent to buy luxury property in the Bahamas, or the millions paid in political donations by Bankman-Fried and others in the U.S. and elsewhere.
"Although some of the property purchased with the proceeds of these transfers is already in the control of the FTX Debtors or governmental authorities with whom the FTX Debtors are cooperating, the amount and timing of eventual monetary recoveries cannot be predicted at this time," the statement said.
Two other senior executives, Sam Trabucco and Ryan Salame, received $25M and $87M, respectively, the SOFAs showed.