Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX and its co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried could face fraud charges overseas as Turkish officials probe the former CEO.
According to a new announcement by Turkey’s Financial Crimes Investigation Board, Bankman-Fried and the crypto exchange are being investigated for fraud over its recent disintegration.
Bankman-Fried is accused of mishandling billions of dollars worth of customer funds by loaning them out to Alameda Research, FTX’s quantitative trading branch.
“On November 14, 2022, an investigation was initiated within the framework of the duties and authorities given to our Agency in accordance with the laws and regulations, before the real and legal persons associated with the global crypto asset trading platform operating under the trade name FTX.com.”
Turkish officials say that the investigation has yielded results so far, claiming that FTX and Bankman-Fried were not truthful to customers and created abnormal market conditions. As a result, the board is asking prosecutors to seize digital assets that seem “suspicious.”
“As a result of the ongoing investigations on the subject by our Agency, at this stage, customer’s trusts are not duly preserved.
The customer’s trusts are transferred to another person or persons or taken abroad by untrue works and transactions, where non-real crypto assets are bought and sold to customers, supply and demand in the markets are managed in a fictitious manner, contrary to normal market operation…
An application has been made to the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office with a request to initiate an investigation for various antecedent crimes and laundering the property values arising from the crime in article 282 and to confiscate the suspicious assets.”
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