The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) today announced the filing of a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Samuel Bankman-Fried, FTX Trading Ltd. d/b/a FTX.com, and Alameda Research LLC.
The complaint charges all three defendants with fraud and material misrepresentations in connection with the sale of digital commodities in interstate commerce. Further, the complaint asserts that defendants’ actions caused the loss of over $8 billion in FTX customer deposits.
The CFTC complaint was filed about a month after FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware. Samuel Bankman-Fried (also known as “SBF”) was arrested on December 12, 2022.
The CFTC complaint alleges that from at least May 2019 through November 11, 2022, Bankman-Fried controlled both FTX.com, a centralized digital asset derivative platform, and Alameda, a digital asset trading firm that operated as a primary market maker on FTX.
As charged, FTX held itself out as “the safest and easiest way to buy and sell crypto” and represented that customers’ assets, including both fiat and digital assets including bitcoin and ether, were held in “custody” by FTX and segregated from FTX’s own assets.
To the contrary, FTX customer assets were routinely accepted and held by Alameda and commingled with Alameda’s funds. Alameda, Bankman-Fried, and others also appropriated customer funds for their own operations and activities, including luxury real estate purchases, political contributions, and high-risk, illiquid digital asset industry investments.
The complaint further alleges that, at Bankman-Fried’s direction, FTX employees created features in the FTX code that favored Alameda and allowed it to execute transactions even when it did not have sufficient funds available, including an “allow negative flag” and effectively limitless line of credit that allowed Alameda to withdraw billions of dollars in customer assets from FTX. These features were not disclosed to the public.
In its continuing litigation against the Defendants, the CFTC seeks restitution, disgorgement, civil monetary penalties, permanent trading and registration bans, and a permanent injunction against further violations of the Commodity Exchange Act (CEA) and CFTC regulations, as charged.
Earlier today, the SEC also announced charges against SBF.
