The Bahamas

FTX ex-staffer: Extravagant expenditures and cult-like worshipping of SBF

A former FTX employee has revealed details regarding the lavish expenditures of the exchange as well as its intense company culture.

A former employee of crypto exchange FTX has seemingly exposed the company’s excessive luxury expenditures, obsessive workplace culture and grueling work hours that led to the hiring of a company psychiatrist in the year before its collapse. 

Danielle Cloud, who worked in FTX’s marketing department, posted a series of tweets on Dec. 13 saying that FTX hired her in October 2021 and she resigned roughly two weeks ago.

“Things felt off. Cult-like,” Cloud wrote, describing the feeling when she first joined the exchange and comparing it to fraudulent ventures such as the luxury music festival Fyre Festival and health technology company Theranos.

She claimed to have “never heard of” FTX or its founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, when she started but said “everyone employed at FTX was obsessed” with him.

“I supposed it made sense. The kid was young, the principles were revolutionary, the ideas were golden. […] Who was I to challenge that?”

Danielle Cloud (front row, center left) pictured with other FTX US employees in February 2022. Image: FTX US President Brett Harrison’s Twitter

Cloud claimed the “best way” to land a role at FTX was to “be the female spouse of an existing employee” who could apparently within “a month or two” make their way into an executive position.

“Those who challenged it were churned,” she claimed.

Time off from work was also a “joke,” according to Cloud. “The work week was Monday to Sunday,” she said. A coworker was “chewed out” for asking if the company had time off for Thanksgiving.

Cloud with an unknown person at SALT’s Crypto Bahamas conference in May. The event was co-hosted by FTX. Image: Instagram

Cloud started as a Know Your Customer (KYC) analyst at FTX US, the company’s United States arm, and was promoted to a full-time marketing role in May 2022 — a position that required her “to work out of the Bahamas majority of the time.”

FTX’s excess luxury expenditures

“The entire operation was iconically and moronically inefficient,” Cloud said, regarding the exchange’s headquarters in the Bahamas. “I never knew all the things money could buy.”

She claimed FTX either purchased or rented multimillion-dollar homes for its executives, who threw lavish house parties and had private chefs.

Employees were provided “expensed stays in luxury hotels” in addition to access to the “half dozen condos” rented or bought by the company.

FTX’s Bahamian office had “food catered 24/7” with employee perks purported to include free groceries, a monthly pop-up barber and fortnightly massages.

A still from a video taken by Cloud depicting an FTX work party at the Albany resort in the Bahamas. Bankman-Fried was known to reside at the location. Image: Instagram

The Commodities Future Trading Commission (CFTC) on Dec. 13 filed a lawsuit against Bankman-Fried, claiming he used FTX customer funds for luxury real estate purchases.

FTX reportedly spent over $250 million on real estate, buying 35 properties in the Bahamas, according to a Dec. 13 report from CNBC.

Why a shrink was brought into FTX

Due to the high workload demands, Cloud said that Bankman-Fried brought in a psychiatrist, Dr. George K. Lerner.

A now-deleted profile on Bankman-Fried written in September by venture firm Sequoia Capital described Lerner as “the person who knows [Bankman-Fried] the best” and “the FTX company therapist.”

Cloud said Lerner was “propositioned as a coach” there to consult on business growth and was said to be “critical” to FTX employee satisfaction and its retention strategy, but alleged Lerner asked her intimate questions about her relationship with her fiancé.

Related: ‘You can commit fraud in shorts and T-shirts in the sun,’ says SDNY attorney on SBF indictment

She also claimed administration staff were “pushed to illegally ship prescriptions to Nassau,” which were written in California and Florida.

At a congressional hearing on Dec. 13, FTX CEO John Ray said there was “no recordkeeping whatsoever” at the company, and that many invoices and expense receipts were submitted through the messaging app Slack.

FTX also used the accounting software Quickbooks, according to Ray, who said he has “nothing against Quickbooks” but it’s not a tool “for a multi-billion-dollar company.”

Crypto Twitter explodes over the news of Sam Bankman-Fried’s arrest

US politicians, crypto execs and influencers fired up their Twitter apps upon learning that Sam Bankman-Fried was in custody in the Bahamas.

Crypto Twitter has blown up over the shocking news of Sam Bankman-Fried’s arrest in the Bahamas, with many surprised it had occurred so quickly. 

On Dec. 12, the disgraced FTX founder was arrested by the Royal Bahamas Police after they received notification that the United States government had filed criminal charges against him.

Within hours, politicians, crypto executives and influencers had all booted up their Twitter apps to comment on the arrest of the former CEO.

New York Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who’s held a fairly neutral view on the crypto industry to date, told her 13.4 million Twitter followers that Bankman-Fried’s was a step  toward “justice being served,” but noted that the arrest would postpone Bankman-Fried’s testimony before the House Financial Services Committee, which was scheduled for Dec. 13.

U.S. Senator Cynthia Lummis was also pleased, tweeting that prosecutors made the right decision to hold Bankman-Fried accountable for the “good, old-fashioned fraud” he allegedly committed.

Fellow U.S. senator and crypto skeptic Elizabeth Warren agreed, stating in a Dec. 13 tweet to her 7 million followers that the U.S. Department of Justice needs to hold more lawbreaking corporate executives accountable.

Others took the opportunity to make light of it all. Benjamin Cowen, the chief executive and founder of the crypto-analysis channel called Into The Cryptoverse, used ChatGPT to create poetry about Bankman-Fried’s latest predicament.

Meanwhile, memes are already making the rounds on Twitter:

Much is also being said about Bankman-Fried’s Twitter posts and media appearances since FTX’s stunning collapse in November.

The co-host of Not Investment Advice, Trung Phan, told his 538,000 Twitter followers on Dec. 13 that Bankman-Fried’s erratic public behavior will make life harder for his defense attorney, while others believe that Bankman-Fried’s arrest will likely see him pointing the finger at colleagues and people linked to the FTX debacle, including those that received his sizeable political donations.

Related: BF tried to destabilize crypto market to save FTX: Report

In what is likely his last Twitter Spaces interview, with Unusual Whales on Dec. 12, Bankman-Fried stated “I don’t think I’ll be arrested” when pressed about the possibility.

The Royal Bahamas Police Force made the arrest following the formal notification from the U.S. that it has filed criminal charges against Bankman-Fried, according to a Dec. 12 announcement by the Bahamas’ Office of the Attorney General.

Fear of ‘angry people’ drove Bankman-Fried to open withdrawals for Bahamians

The former FTX CEO has explained why the exchange only reopened withdrawals for Bahamian citizens shortly before filing for bankruptcy.

FTX’s former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has divulged what really went on in the days before it filed for bankruptcy when the exchange selectively reopened withdrawals — only for Bahamian users. 

In a telephone interview with crypto blogger Tiffany Fong, dated Nov. 16, Bankman-Fried claims to have made the decision to reopen withdrawals to Bahamian citizens, as he did not want himself nor the exchange to be in a country “with a lot of angry people in it.”

“The reason I did it was it was critical to the exchange being able to have a future because that’s where I am right now, and you do not want to be in a country with a lot of angry people in it and you do not want your company to be incorporated in a country with a lot of angry people in it,” he said.

Bankman-Fried claims he gave Bahamian securities regulators a “one-day heads up” that FTX was going to do it, but said the regulator neither responded with a “yes or no,” before he ultimately decided to go ahead with allowing withdrawals:

“So it was realistically speaking, it’s shitty, but […] the pathway for FTX involved Bahamians not being pissed at it.”

The now-defunct crypto exchange initially halted all withdrawals on Nov. 8 as a result of liquidity issues.

On Nov. 10, only a day before it filed for bankruptcy, the exchange noted it had begun to facilitate withdrawals of Bahamian funds. At the time, it claimed that it was in compliance with the demands of the country’s regulators — leading to millions of dollars worth of funds extracted from the exchange.

However, the Securities Commission of The Bahamas (SCB) threw a wrench into FTX’s narrative, stating on Nov. 12 that it had neither instructed nor authorized FTX to prioritize withdrawals of Bahamian clients.

They also warned that any withdrawal of funds could be clawed back as part of the firm’s liquidation proceedings.

Cointelegraph contacted the SCB for confirmation on if it had received communication from FTX prior to the exchange’s withdrawals reopening, and what its response was at the time. The SCB did not immediately respond.

In his most recent interview with Fong, Bankman-Fried denied the move was to facilitate withdrawals by people within FTX after Fong suggested that this is how it was being seen.

“Oh it wasn’t insider withdrawals, this was trying to create a regulatory pathway forward for the exchange.”

SBF was hot on FTX hacker’s trail

The former FTX CEO also noted during the Nov. 16 interview that he was close to finding out the identity of the FTX hacker, who is understood to have stolen over $450 million worth of assets soon after the exchange filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11.

“I don’t know exactly who because they shut off all access to the systems when I was halfway through exploring it. I’ve narrowed it down to eight people. I don’t know which one it was but I have a pretty decent sense.”

Bankman-Fried said he believes it was “either an ex-employee or somewhere someone installed malware on an ex-employee’s computer.”

Related: ‘I never opened the code for FTX’: SBF has long, candid talk with vlogger

In a separate, more recent interview with Sam Bankman-Fried by Axios on Nov. 29, the former FTX CEO has revealed he only has around $100,000 left in his bank account as of today.

This is despite Bankman-Fried being worth an estimated $26 billion at his peak.

Bankman-Fried claims that he had “basically everything” tied up in the now-bankrupt company.

“I mean, I have no idea. I don’t know. I had $100,000 in my bank account last I checked,” he said.

Fear of ‘angry people’ drove Bankman-Fried to open withdrawals for Bahamians

The former FTX CEO has explained why the exchange only reopened withdrawals for Bahamian citizens shortly before filing for bankruptcy.

FTX’s former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried has divulged what really went on in the days before it filed for bankruptcy when the exchange selectively reopened withdrawals — only for Bahamian users. 

In a telephone interview with crypto blogger Tiffany Fong, dated Nov. 16, Bankman-Fried claims to have made the decision to reopen withdrawals to Bahamian citizens as he did not want himself, nor the exchange, to be in a country “with a lot of angry people in it.”

“The reason I did it was it was critical to the exchange being able to have a future because that’s where I am right now, and you do not want to be in a country with a lot of angry people in it and you do not want your company to be incorporated in a country with a lot of angry people in it,” he said.

Bankman-Fried claims he gave Bahamian securities regulators a “one-day heads up” that FTX was going to do it, but said the regulator neither responded with a “yes or no,” before he ultimately decided to go ahead with allowing withdrawals.

“So it was realistically speaking, it’s shitty, but […] the pathway for FTX involved Bahamians not being pissed at it.”

The now-defunct crypto exchange initially halted all withdrawals on Nov. 8 as a result of liquidity issues.

On Nov. 10, only a day before it filed for bankruptcy, the exchange noted it had begun to facilitate withdrawals of Bahamian funds. At the time, it claimed that it was in compliance with the demands of the country’s regulators — leading to millions of dollars worth of funds extracted from the exchange.

However, the Securities Commission of The Bahamas (SCB) threw a wrench into FTX’s narrative, stating on Nov. 12 that it had neither instructed nor authorized FTX to prioritize withdrawals of Bahamian clients.

They also warned that any withdrawal of funds could be clawed back as part of the firm’s liquidation proceedings.

Cointelegraph contacted the SCB for confirmation on if it had received communication from FTX prior to the exchange’s withdrawals reopening, and what its response was at the time. The SCB did not immediately respond.

In his most recent interview with Fong, Bankman-Fried denied the move was to facilitate withdrawals by people within FTX after Fong suggested that this is how it was being seen.

“Oh it wasn’t insider withdrawals, this was trying to create a regulatory pathway forward for the exchange.”

SBF was hot on FTX hacker’s trail

The former FTX CEO also noted during the Nov. 16 interview that he was close to finding out the identity of the FTX hacker, who is understood to have stolen over $450 million worth of assets soon after the exchange filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11.

“I don’t know exactly who because they shut off all access to the systems when I was halfway through exploring it. I’ve narrowed it down to eight people. I don’t know which one it was but I have a pretty decent sense.”

Bankman-Fried said he believes it was “either an ex-employee or somewhere someone installed malware on an ex-employee’s computer.”

Related: ‘I never opened the code for FTX’: SBF has long, candid talk with vlogger

In a separate, more recent interview with Sam Bankman-Fried by Axios on Nov. 29, the former FTX CEO has revealed he only has around $100,000 left in his bank account as of today.

This is despite Bankman-Fried being worth an estimated $26 billion at his peak.

Bankman-Fried claims that he had “basically everything” tied up in the now-bankrupt company.

“I mean, I have no idea. I don’t know. I had $100,000 in my bank account last I checked,” he said.

FTX resumes paying staff and contractors after weeks in limbo

The payments will exclude former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, and certain former execs including Gary Wang, Nishad Singh and Alameda’s Caroline Ellison.

Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX has announced it will be “resuming ordinary” cash payments, salaries and benefits to its remaining employees around the world.

The announcement came from new FTX CEO John Ray III on Nov. 28, as the insolvency professional looks to help FTX and its approximated 101 affiliated companies (FTX Debtors) navigate their way through the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware:

“With the Court’s approval of our First Day motions and the work being done on global cash management, I am pleased that the FTX group is resuming ordinary course cash payments of salaries and benefits to our remaining employees around the world.”

“FTX also is making cash payments to selected non-U.S. vendors and service providers where necessary to preserve business operations, subject to the limits approved by the Bankruptcy Court,” he added.

The announcement comes around 10 days after FTX debtors filed a motion to pay prepetition compensation and benefits to employees and contractors in the Delaware bankruptcy court on Nov. 19, which excludes payments to former FTX CEO and founder Sam Bankman-Fried, along with Gary Wang, Nishad Singh and Caroline Ellison.

The latest announcement will mean that the remaining employees and contractors of FTX will be receiving nearly three weeks’ worth of pay, which was presumably halted after the company filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11.

Ray acknowledged the financial hardship imposed on FTX employees and foreign contractors with the payment delay and thanked them for their support:

“We recognize the hardship imposed by the temporary interruption in these payments and thank all of our valuable employees and partners for their support.”

The relief will include cash payments owed to workers at FTX Trading and 101 other affiliated companies since the Nov. 11 bankruptcy filing, in addition to the many vendors and service providers who still need to be paid out by FTX.

However, the resumption of payments won’t apply to all FTX subsidiaries and related companies.

In the Bahamas, where the crypto exchange is headquartered, only employees and contractors of the FTX Debtors will receive relief, but not those who worked for FTX Digital Markets, which is subject to a separate liquidation proceeding in the Bahamas.

It also won’t apply to Australia-based employees and contractors for FTX Australia and its subsidiary FTX Express, which are also subject to separate proceedings in Australia.

Related: US House committee sets Dec. 13 date for FTX hearing

On Nov. 22, FTX Trading announced it had been granted interim and final approvals for all of the “First Day” motions for matters related to its bankruptcy filing on Nov. 11.

At the time, Ray said he expected the motions to fast-track FTX Debtor’s efforts to reimburse other stakeholders affected by the trading platform’s collapse, such as FTX users and creditors, with the new CEO suggesting that a potential buyout of FTX’s assets could benefit stakeholders sooner rather than later.

However, some insolvency lawyers warn that the process could take years, or even decades, given the complexity and scope of FTX’s collapse.

Insolvency lawyer Stephen Earel, partner at Co Cordis in Australia, recently told Cointelegraph that it’ll take the courts several years, if not decades, to determine who owned what crypto assets before coming up with a plan to redistribute those funds.

FTX Trading alone owes its top 50 creditors $3.1 billion, according to a document submitted as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings.

FTX under ‘active’ civil and criminal investigation: Bahamas AG

Bahamian Securities Commission, the Prime Minister’s financial intelligence unit and a financial crimes unit are all involved in the FTX investigation.

The Bahamas Attorney General (AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs Ryan Pinder has confirmed that the collapsed crypto exchange FTX is the focus of an “active and ongoing” investigation by authorities from the Caribbean nation.

In a national statement that was delivered live on the Facebook page of the Office of the Prime Minister on Nov. 27, Pinder explained that the “affairs of FTX Digital Markets” are under scrutiny from both “civil and criminal authorities,” and Bahamian authorities are working with “a number of specialists and experts and will continue to do so as the need arises.”

“The Securities Commission, our financial intelligence unit, and the financial crimes unit of the Royal Bahamas Police Force will continue to investigate the facts and circumstances regarding FTX’s insolvency crisis and any potential violations of Bahamian law,” he added.

Pinder also revealed the relevant Bahamian authorities would try to hold to account any companies or individuals found to have committed any wrongdoing during the investigation, while they will cooperate with other regulatory agencies and law enforcement bodies around the world.

“These events remind us of the lessons learned from securities and other financial regulation about the need for strong cross-border cooperation. The public worldwide will be best served by a strong international regulatory cooperation,” he said.

The Securities Commission of the Bahamas suspended FTX Digital Markets (FDM) license to conduct business and stripped its directors of their power on Nov. 10.

On Nov. 12 they ordered the transfer of all FDM digital assets to a digital wallet owned by the commission for “safekeeping.”

Pinder mentioned the country’s regulatory authority has taken further protective measures approved by the Supreme Court but declined to elaborate further until “we are confident that doing so will not jeopardize any aspect of the ongoing investigations.”

Pinder also took the chance to slam the Nov. 17 emergency motion by FTX Trading Limited, which called out the “Bahamian government” for “directing unauthorized access to the Debtors’ systems” after the commencement of Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings in the United States.

He called the allegations “extremely regrettable” for misrepresenting “the timely action taken by the Securities Commission,” while also defending all the steps taken by the country‘s regulator so far.

Related: Alameda Research withdrew $204M ahead of bankruptcy filing: Arkham Intelligence

The Bahamas has encouraged crypto companies to the island country to aid its economy but it’s since been shaken by FTX’s collapse.

It was also hard hit by 2019’s Hurricane Dorian and the COVID-19 pandemic starting in 2020, ground its heavily tourism-based economy to a halt. With FTX gone, so have many jobs in the small nation.

But, Pinder outlined his belief that despite the “personal tragedies” associated with the collapse of FTX, he expects “little contagion beyond the digital asset sphere both here in the Bahamas and around the world.”

He referenced a Nov. 22 Standard & Poor’s ratings for the Bahamas, which forecast a stable outlook, citing the tourism sector’s performance.

“Standards and Poor has projected a stable outlook for our economy resting in part on the assumption that there will be no material adverse impact on the Bahamas from the worldwide collapse of FTX,” Pinder said.

Recent FTX hacks prove it was right to ‘secure’ its assets: Bahamian regulator

The Securities Commission of The Bahamas said the continued hacking attempts on FTX prove it made the right call to “secure” FTX’s digital assets.

The Securities Commission of The Bahamas says the continued “hacking attempts” on FTX’s digital assets prove they made the right call to take control of the exchange’s assets on Nov. 12. 

In a statement on Nov. 23, the commission said the fact that FTX’s “systems were compromised, and that they continue to face new hacking attempts – reinforces the wisdom of the commission’s prompt action to secure these digital assets.”

On the same day that FTX filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, the crypto community began flagging roughly $266.3 million worth of outflows on wallets associated with FTX. By Nov. 12, the outflows had ballooned to more than $650 million.

Blockchain analysts have suggested that $477 million is suspected to have been stolen, while the remainder was moved to secure storage by FTX themselves.

In its latest statement, the commission said while it suspended FTX Digital Markets (FDM) license to conduct business and stripped its directors of their power on Nov. 10, this was not sufficient in protecting customers and creditors of FDM.

The commission further explained that due to the “nature of digital assets” and “the risks associated with hacking and compromise,” it sought an order from the Supreme Court to transfer all digital assets from FTX to the commission for “safekeeping.”

The latest statement reinforces recent analysis from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis, and Twitter crypto sleuth ZachXBT, who said that on-chain evidence suggests that the actions of the Bahamian regulator is not related to the alleged “FTX hacker.”

Related: FTX’s ongoing saga: Everything that’s happened until now

The commission has also lashed out at the Nov. 17 emergency motion by FTX Trading Limited, which called out the “Bahamian government” for “directing unauthorized access to the Debtors’ systems” after the commencement of Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings.

“It is unfortunate that in Chapter 11 filings, the new CEO of FTX Trading Ltd. misrepresented this timely action through the intemperate and inaccurate allegations lodged in the Transfer Motion,” the Commission said.

Crypto sleuth debunks 3 biggest misconceptions about the FTX hack

Blockchain detective ZachXBT has provided evidence refuting recent speculation about the identity of the FTX hacker and their supposed memecoin activity.

On-chain sleuth ZachXBT has shared his findings on what he sees as the three most common misconceptions about the FTX hack — taking to Twitter to correct a “ton of misinformation” about the event and the possible culprits. 

In a lengthy Nov. 20 post on Twitter, the self-proclaimed “on-chain sleuth” debunked speculation that Bahamian officials were behind the FTX hack, that exchanges knew the hacker’s true identity, and that the culprit is trading memecoins.

On the same day that FTX filed for bankruptcy on Nov. 11, the crypto community began flagging suspicious transactions on wallets associated with FTX, with more than $650 million transferred off the wallet. 

While there was no official culprit has been identified, a Nov. 17 statement from the Securities Commission of the Bahamas (SCB) that stated it had ordered the transfer of all digital assets of FTX to a digital wallet owned by the commission around that time prompted some to believe the SCB was behind the supposed “hack.”

However, ZachXBT argued that the 0x59 wallet address associated with the hacker was a blackhat address and not affiliated with either the FTX team or the SCB because it “began selling tokens for ETH, DAI, and BNB and using a variety of bridges so crypto couldn’t be frozen on 11/12.”

“The fact 0x59 was dumping tokens and bridging sporadically was very different behavior from the other addresses who withdrew from FTX and instead sent to a multisig on chains like Eth or Tron,” he added.

Zach also notes that the blackhat wallet also had contact with another wallet, 0x24, which he suggests “has very [suspicious] behavior on-chain using sketchy services:”

“This behavior completely differs what was said about the Debtors moving assets to cold storage or Bahamian government moving assets to Fireblocks.”

ZachXBT says his final clue was the wallet address selling Ether (ETH) for ren Bitcoin (renBTC) and then using RenBridge, which he says will most likely end with the funds being sent to “a mixer at some point in the future.”

Blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis came to a similar conclusion in a Nov. 20 post, noting that:

“Reports that the funds stolen from FTX were actually sent to the Securities Commission of The Bahamas are incorrect. Some funds were stolen, and other funds were sent to the regulators.”

FTX has also commented on the recent fund movements, posting a warning to exchanges “that certain funds transferred from FTX Global and related debtors without authorization on 11/11/22 are being transferred to them through intermediate wallets.”

ZachXBT also highlighted the potential misinformation surrounding the claim the hacker’s identity had been discovered by “Kraken or other exchanges.”

The rumor had been circulating since Kraken’s chief security officer claimed in a Nov.12 post that, “We know the identity of the user.”

Zach says “In reality,” the user identified as the hacker was likely just the FTX group securing assets to a multi-signature wallet on Tron, using Kraken due to the FTX hot wallet being out of gas for transactions, stating: 

“The withdrawals to these multisigs also matched what Ryne Miller (FTX GC) had said at the time. This took place hours after the initial 0x59 withdrawals.”

Related: FTX funds on the move as thief converts thousands of ETH into Bitcoin

As his last point, ZachXBT took aim at the rumor that the FTX hacker is trading memecoins, which was first noted by blockchain analytics firm CertiK.

Instead, the blockchain detective claims the transfers have been “spoofed” on the Ethereum network, citing a March blog by Etherscan community member Harith Kamarul, explaining how transactions can be faked.

Bahamian securities regulator ordered the transfer of FTX’s digital assets

The Bahamian securities regulator clarified it directed FTX to move its digital assets to a wallet owned by the commission on Nov. 12.

The Securities Commission of the Bahamas (SCB) said it had ordered the transfer of all digital assets of FTX Digital Markets (FDM) to a digital wallet owned by the commission on Nov. 12. 

In a Nov. 17 statement, the SCB said it exercised its power as a regulator acting under the authority of a Supreme Court order — moving the assets to a “digital wallet controlled by the Commission, for safekeeping.”

SCB justified last week’s move by stating that “urgent interim regulatory action was necessary to protect the interests of clients and creditors of FDM.”

The latest revelation could shed some light on certain movements of funds detected last week. 

On Nov. 11, the crypto community flagged a number of suspicious transactions in wallets tied to FTX and FTX.US, with analysts reporting around $663 million drained. $477 million were suspected to be stolen, while the remainder was believed to have been moved to secure storage by FTX themselves.

The SCB statement however did not make any mention of how much of FDM’s digital assets were moved as a result of their order.

Cointelegraph has reached out to SCB for clarity but has not received a response by the time of publication. 

The commission’s order would have been made only two days after the commission froze FDM’s assets on Nov. 10, suspended FTX’s registration in the country and stripped the FTX directors of their power.

At the time, it also stated that FDM’s assets could only be moved by obtaining the approval of a provisional liquidator appointed by the Supreme Court.

Related: FTX reportedly hacked as officials flag abnormal wallet activity

The FTX bankruptcy drama has continued to unfold over the last week.

On Nov. 15, FDM filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy protection in a New York-based court in order to seek U.S. recognition of the Bahamian liquidation proceedings.

Brian Simms, the court-appointed provisional liquidator overseeing the bankruptcy proceedings of FTX Digital Markets in the Bahamas, argued in the filing that FDM wasn’t authorized to file for Chapter 11 in the United States and rejected the validity of the filing.

On Nov. 17, an emergency motion by FTX Trading Limited argued that both the Chapter 11 case and all proceedings related to Chapter 15 filings should take place in the Delaware-based U.S. Bankruptcy Court in order to “end the chaos and to ensure that assets can be secured and marshalled in an orderly process.”

The same filing also claimed they have “credible evidence that the Bahamian government is responsible for directing unauthorized access to the Debtors’ systems for the purpose of obtaining digital assets of the Debtors—that took place after the commencement of these cases.”