Unidentified hackers stole a whopping $415 million in cryptocurrency from FTX’s already-depleted holdings in the days after its bankruptcy, the doomed platform’s caretakers admitted in a court filing on Tuesday.
In a bankruptcy court presentation titled “Maximizing FTX Recoveries,” officials say they have identified at least $323 million in digital assets from Bahamas-based FTX.com and $90 million from FTX’s US operation that disappeared from the books via “unauthorized third-party transfers.”
Hackers stole an additional $2 million in assets held by disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s now-shuttered cryptocurrency hedge fund Alameda Research, according to the presentation.
The FTX presentation did not identify a potential culprit or provide further details on the hack itself.
“We are making important progress in our efforts to maximize recoveries, and it has taken a Herculean investigative effort from our team to uncover this preliminary information,” FTX CEO John Ray said in a statement on the disclosures.
Concerns about the mysterious hack first arose on Nov. 12, one day after a sudden cash crunch forced Bankman-Fried to file for bankruptcy and resigned as FTX’s CEO. At the time, blockchain analytics firm Elliptic said it had identified approximately $473 million in digital assets that were “moved out of FTX wallets in suspicious circumstances.”
That same day, FTX US general counsel Ryne Miller said the bankrupt platform had “expedited” the process of moving its remaining holdings into safe “cold storage” after “observing unauthorized transactions.”
The entities responsible for the hacks have yet to be identified.
A team of FTX attorneys and officials is scrambling to recover funds as they seek to make burned creditors financially whole. The company said it has identified approximately $5.5 billion in liquid assets, including $1.7 billion in cash.
The FTX presentation identified various “potential sources of recovery,” including the past regime’s venture investments, still-solvent subsidiaries and real estate holdings.
FTX officials say the platform accumulated a Bahamas-based real estate empire of 36 properties valued at $253 million.
Prosecutors have accused Bankman-Fried of running one of the biggest scams in US history while helming FTX. He is alleged to have used FTX customer funds to bankroll various real estate purchases and investments, a slew of political donations and as a financial backstop for risky bets at Alameda.
Bankman-Fried, who is currently under house arrest in California, faces up to 115 years in prison.
With Post wires
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
