FTX investigation -- CoinDesk, SDNY, Bahamas, and the estate

The public investigation begins with a trade-press leak and a run, then becomes a standard SDNY white-collar case plus a large Chapter 11.

This page records those steps. It does not describe how to commingle or conceal customer property.

Agencies

• U.S. Attorney, Southern District of New York — Charged Bankman-Fried and took the cooperating pleas; tried the case before Judge Kaplan in 2023.
• Federal Bureau of Investigation / CFTC / SEC — Supported the criminal case and brought parallel civil actions against Bankman-Fried and entities as set out in 2022-2023 complaints.
• Bahamian authorities — Arrested Bankman-Fried in December 2022 and handled extradition; also asserted local interest in FTX Digital Markets.
• Delaware bankruptcy court (estate) — Supervised Ray's Chapter 11, asset sales, and the customer claims process that later reported large recoveries.

What followed

1. Trade-press publication

   CoinDesk's 2 November 2022 article put Alameda's balance sheet into the market.

2. Run and failed sale

   Withdrawals and a collapsed Binance letter of intent left the exchange unable to open as before.

3. Chapter 11

   Petitions on 11 November 2022 preserved what assets Ray's team could find and started the civil reconstruction.

4. Arrest and extradition

   The December 2022 Nassau arrest and later removal to New York started the criminal custody clock.

5. Cooperating pleas

   Ellison, Wang, and Singh pleaded and proffered, giving prosecutors an insider chorus before trial.

6. Trial, verdict, sentence

   October-November 2023 evidence; 2 November verdict; 28 March 2024 sentence.

Turning points

• The CoinDesk article — Without the 2 November 2022 publication the run week has no public hinge. The piece did not convict anyone; it made the books a market event.
• The cooperating pleas — Once the operating inner circle pleaded, the trial was about corroboration and intent, not about whether a hole existed.
• The defendant testified — Bankman-Fried took the stand. The jury's seven-count conviction followed a credibility contest the government won.

After-the-fact investigators reconstructed a November 2022 failure. The jury then named it fraud. Customer recovery is a later civil chapter.

Public-record encyclopedia. Not legal advice. Not a how-to. Graphic detail is withheld. Wars belong in a separate atlas.

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