{"id":31179,"date":"2023-10-19T11:52:48","date_gmt":"2023-10-19T15:52:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cryptocornercafe.com\/cafe\/?p=31179"},"modified":"2023-10-19T11:52:48","modified_gmt":"2023-10-19T15:52:48","slug":"ftx-billion-dollar-fraud-expert-figures-out-where-the-missing-9-billion-went","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cryptocornercafe.com\/cafe\/2023\/10\/19\/ftx-billion-dollar-fraud-expert-figures-out-where-the-missing-9-billion-went\/","title":{"rendered":"FTX Billion-Dollar Fraud: Expert Figures Out Where The Missing $9 Billion Went"},"content":{"rendered":"

The trial of the former CEO of the defunct<\/a> crypto exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF)<\/a>, continued<\/a> on October 18 with the direct examination of the prosecution\u2019s expert witness, Peter Easton, an Accounting Professor who works at the University of Notre Dame.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Expert Testimony Shows Customers\u2019 Funds Were Stolen<\/h2>\n

According to a report<\/a> by Bloomberg, Easton explained that $9 billion in customers\u2019 funds had already gone missing since June 2022, five months before FTX filed for bankruptcy<\/a>. He specifically alluded to the customers\u2019 deposits, which were made into Alameda Research\u2019s bank accounts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Having laid a foundation<\/a> that Bankman-Fried stole FTX\u2019s customers\u2019 funds<\/a> through Alameda, the next step in the prosecution\u2019s case was to show that these funds were indeed stolen, and that was the role of Easton, who has an expertise in \u201cpenetrating the details of financial statements.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He stated that based on deposits made by customers, Alameda was meant to have held $11.3 billion in FTX customers\u2019 funds, but only $2.3 billion was actually in the trading firm\u2019s bank accounts. According to him, these funds were ultimately used for several purposes.<\/p>\n\n

What The Stolen FTX Funds Were Used For<\/h2>\n

Easton further provided details as to where some of these funds went. He alleged that some of these funds were used to invest in companies like Anthony Scaramucci\u2019s SkyBridge Capital<\/a>, Lily Zhang\u2019s Modulo Capital, Robinhood, Dave<\/a> and Anthropic<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Specifically, he stated<\/a> that the investment in Modulo was 100% from customers\u2019 funds, with him being able to trace the transaction from FTX\u2019s database.<\/p>\n

While giving her testimony, Alameda\u2019s ex-CEO, Caroline Ellison, also revealed<\/a> that Alameda, with SBF\u2019s permission, used FTX\u2019s customers\u2019 funds to repay its lenders. Easton corroborated<\/a> this statement as he mentioned that some of the missing funds were used to repay lenders like Celsius, Abra, Maple, and Anchorage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His testimony didn\u2019t stop there, though, as, according to him, some of the funds were also used to fund political campaigns, charity foundations, and real estate purchases. Part of these political contributions included<\/a> the $1 million that FTX\u2019s Director of Engineering Nishad Singh<\/a> had donated to Mind The Gap (MTG), a Political Action Committee (PAC) that SBF\u2019s mum Barbara Fried<\/a> co-founded.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Additionally, $96 million of these customers\u2019 funds is said<\/a> to have been spent on real estate purchases, of which a property owned by SBF\u2019s parents happens to be among them, going by the evidence tendered by the prosecution.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The professor mentioned that all these discoveries were made following his analysis of Alameda\u2019s statements, information from the FTX database, documents from lenders, and on-chain data.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

The trial of the former CEO of the defunct<\/a> crypto exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF)<\/a>, continued<\/a> on October 18 with the direct examination of the prosecution\u2019s expert witness, Peter Easton, an Accounting Professor who works at the University of Notre Dame.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Expert Testimony Shows Customers\u2019 Funds Were Stolen<\/h2>\n

According to a report<\/a> by Bloomberg, Easton explained that $9 billion in customers\u2019 funds had already gone missing since June 2022, five months before FTX filed for bankruptcy<\/a>. He specifically alluded to the customers\u2019 deposits, which were made into Alameda Research\u2019s bank accounts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Having laid a foundation<\/a> that Bankman-Fried stole FTX\u2019s customers\u2019 funds<\/a> through Alameda, the next step in the prosecution\u2019s case was to show that these funds were indeed stolen, and that was the role of Easton, who has an expertise in \u201cpenetrating the details of financial statements.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

He stated that based on deposits made by customers, Alameda was meant to have held $11.3 billion in FTX customers\u2019 funds, but only $2.3 billion was actually in the trading firm\u2019s bank accounts. According to him, these funds were ultimately used for several purposes.<\/p>\n

What The Stolen FTX Funds Were Used For<\/h2>\n

Easton further provided details as to where some of these funds went. He alleged that some of these funds were used to invest in companies like Anthony Scaramucci\u2019s SkyBridge Capital<\/a>, Lily Zhang\u2019s Modulo Capital, Robinhood, Dave<\/a> and Anthropic<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Specifically, he stated<\/a> that the investment in Modulo was 100% from customers\u2019 funds, with him being able to trace the transaction from FTX\u2019s database.<\/p>\n

While giving her testimony, Alameda\u2019s ex-CEO, Caroline Ellison, also revealed<\/a> that Alameda, with SBF\u2019s permission, used FTX\u2019s customers\u2019 funds to repay its lenders. Easton corroborated<\/a> this statement as he mentioned that some of the missing funds were used to repay lenders like Celsius, Abra, Maple, and Anchorage.\u00a0<\/p>\n

His testimony didn\u2019t stop there, though, as, according to him, some of the funds were also used to fund political campaigns, charity foundations, and real estate purchases. Part of these political contributions included<\/a> the $1 million that FTX\u2019s Director of Engineering Nishad Singh<\/a> had donated to Mind The Gap (MTG), a Political Action Committee (PAC) that SBF\u2019s mum Barbara Fried<\/a> co-founded.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Additionally, $96 million of these customers\u2019 funds is said<\/a> to have been spent on real estate purchases, of which a property owned by SBF\u2019s parents happens to be among them, going by the evidence tendered by the prosecution.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The professor mentioned that all these discoveries were made following his analysis of Alameda\u2019s statements, information from the FTX database, documents from lenders, and on-chain data.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_layout":"default_layout","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blockchain"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptocornercafe.com\/cafe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptocornercafe.com\/cafe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptocornercafe.com\/cafe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptocornercafe.com\/cafe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/cryptocornercafe.com\/cafe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31179\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptocornercafe.com\/cafe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptocornercafe.com\/cafe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptocornercafe.com\/cafe\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}