FTX collapse (2024): Estate recoveries

The SDNY trial record, cooperating pleas, the Delaware bankruptcy, and contemporaneous 2022 reporting are the primary sources. They describe a completed fraud conviction, not an unsolved disappearance of a chain. FTX presented itself as a customer exchange. Alameda Research, also controlled by Bankman-Fried, was a trading firm. Trial evidence and pleas described Alameda as having a special position at FTX and as using assets that customers of the exchange treated as theirs.

The criminal theory, which the jury accepted, was that statements about segregation and risk were false and that the misuse of customer property was a scheme to obtain and keep money. This page does not reconstruct internal transfer mechanics. On 2 November 2022 CoinDesk published a piece on Alameda's balance sheet that made the concentration of FTT token and related assets a public fact. Changpeng Zhao of Binance announced an intent to sell FTT. Withdrawals surged.

A proposed Binance acquisition collapsed after diligence. FTX entities filed Chapter 11 on 11 November. Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas on 12 December 2022 and later extradited to the United States. Ellison (Alameda's last CEO), Wang (a co-founder), and Singh (a senior engineer) pleaded guilty in 2022-2023 and testified or were available to the government. Their pleas removed much of the 'who knew' mystery before opening statements.