FTX’s former CEO, Bankman Fried, and his co-founder could have easily stolen hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency due to weak security measures, according to FTX’s new CEO, John J. Ray III. He made these remarks during a court testimony in Delaware bankruptcy court on Monday. According to Ray, the founders could have simply downloaded half a billion dollars’ worth of crypto wallets onto a thumb drive and walked away with no trace of their actions.
FTX filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States and Bankman-Fried resigned his position in November of 2022. Later, the company’s lawyers explained that the company ran out of assets due to executives drawing on customers’ funds through a $65 billion line of credit. Bankman-Fried was arrested in December and has since been charged with fraud, money laundering, and campaign finance violations. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
In his testimony, Ray stated that his first 48 hours in charge of FTX were difficult and that over the past 50 days, he has charged the company $690,000 for his services. The court hearing on Monday was in response to calls from the US Trustee, representing the Department of Justice, for an independent examiner. The federal agency believes that the allegations of fraud, dishonesty, misconduct, and mismanagement are too significant to be investigated internally.
