Only three individuals have the authority to transfer customer funds to Alameda Research, according to FTX co-CEO Ryan Salame, who spoke to the Securities Commission of the Bahamas (SCB).
As stated in a Dec. 14 court filing, FTX co-CEO Ryan Salame informed Bahamian officials on Nov. 9 that the exchange was transferring its customers’ funds to Alameda Research.
As per Salame, who spoke before the Securities Commission of the Bahamas (SCB), only three individuals could execute such transfers. These individuals included co-founder Zixiao “Gary” Wang, director of engineering Nishad Singh, and FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried.
Mr Salame advised the Commission that transferring clients’ assets in this manner was contrary to FTX Digital’s normal corporate governance and operations. This would be considered misappropriation, theft, fraud or some other crime since such transfers were not permitted.”
Immediately after receiving the information, the financial authority acted quickly and on Nov. 10 ordered the freezing of FTX assets. In order to protect the company’s assets, the watchdog suspended the exchange’s license and appointed a provisional liquidator.
As of now, Salame is in Washington, D.C., according to the filing.
In parallel, Sam Bankman-Fried has been detained by the Bahamas authorities at the request of the US government. Due to the fact that he is considered to be a flight risk, his bail was denied.
The only individual from FTX and Alameda who has been charged so far is Sam Bankman-Fried. He is accused of wire fraud, securities fraud, money laundering and violations involving the financing of political campaigns.
According to reports, Bankman-Fried, Wang, Singh, and Ellison operated a group chat on the secure messaging platform Signal named “Wirefraud” where they shared confidential information about FTX and Alameda’s operations. Bankman-Fried denied any involvement or knowledge of the group.