SBF made $9 billion disappear. This forensic accountant found it
A forensic accountant at The trial of Sam Bankman-Fried tried to figure out where $9 billion in missing FTX customer funds went on Wednesday. “Oh yes,” the accountant said when asked if FTX had ever misused customer funds.
Peter Easton, an accounting professor at the University of Notre Dame brought in by prosecutors, said users’ deposits were reinvested in businesses and real estate, used for political contributions and donated to charity, according to a report CoinDesk Thursday.
Importantly, Easton highlights specific transactions in which SBF was involved that would have required client funds to complete. In a key interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos in November 2022, the FTX founder denied that he knew “there were any.” Misuse of customer funds.”
Customer funds peaked at FTX in June 2022, when $11.3 billion was supposed to be held at Alameda Research, but there was only $2.3 billion in bank accounts. Easton noted that customer funds had already lost their support in March 2021.
Easton says customer money was invested Anthony Scaramucci’s SkyBridge Capital and Lily Zhang’s Modulo Capital. Modulo Capital has returned 404 million dollars in March 2023 to FTX stating that the funds had been transferred in error. FTX customers also unknowingly funded a $550 million investment in Genesis Digital Assets, a not-to-be-confused crypto mining company the other Genesis Publish crypto news on the same day.
Former Alameda Research employee Aditya Baradwaj published a full list of Political donations from the SBF This came to light in the trial and cost a total of $133 million. The list includes a $10 million donation to SBF’s father Joseph Bankman, tens of millions of dollars to Republican and Democratic super PACs, and donations to various charities.
FTX’s head of technology, Nishad Singh, told the court earlier this week that he felt “betrayed” from SBF. Singh says he deserves blame for much of the wrongdoing, but his testimony bolstered prosecutors’ contention that SBF was the true coordinator of the FTX scam. Singh didn’t find out about the scam until two months before the world, but he stayed to try to save the sinking ship.
“How could I live with myself if my leaving resulted in a fall that could have been avoided?” Singh told the court.
The technical lead had questions about FTX’s finances during his final months at the company. When Singh asked what the company’s dead volume was, SBF said that was the “wrong question” and the better question was “How can we deliver?”
