US Authorities Form ‘FTX Task Force’ to Track Stolen User Funds

The United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY) has created the FTX Task Force to “trace and recover” missing customer funds following the collapse of the FTX exchange.

The task force will also handle investigations and prosecutions related to the exchange’s failure. Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX, has been charged with wire and securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire and securities fraud, money laundering, and violating campaign finance laws.

The task force will consist of senior prosecutors from the SDNY’s securities and commodities fraud, public corruption, money laundering, and transnational crime enterprise units, as well as using its “asset forfeiture and cyber capabilities” to locate the missing funds.

A similar effort is already underway by FTX’s new management, which has hired financial advisory firm AlixPartners to conduct “asset-tracing” for the missing funds.

The collapse of FTX and the subsequent investigations have arisen from the company’s operation out of the Bahamas, where many of the alleged crimes are believed to have been perpetrated.