Defunct cryptocurrency trade FTX filed a lawsuit on Sept. 21 against former employees of the Hong Kong-incorporated firm Salameda, which was beforehand affiliated with the FTX group, according to court docket paperwork.
The court docket submitting says FTX seeks to recuperate $157.3 million that it claims was fraudulently withdrawn within the hours earlier than the trade filed for chapter.
According to the submitting, Michael Burgess, Matthew Burgess and their mom, Lesley Burgess, in addition to Kevin Nguyen and Darren Wong, together with two different firms, allegedly held possession of firms with registered accounts on FTX.com and FTX US and withdrew funds within the “preference period” earlier than FTX’s chapter submitting.
The court docket submitting reads:
“Each of these transfers to Defendant Michael Burgess was made with the intent to hinder, delay or defraud FTX US’s present or future creditors.”
It additionally highlights that these transfers had been accomplished hours earlier than FTX halted all non-fiat user withdrawals on Nov. 8, 2022.
It alleges Mathew Burgess pressured FTX employees to “push out” explicit pending withdrawal requisitions “from one of Michael Burgess’s FTX US exchange accounts, while misrepresenting the account to be his own,” citing messages on Slack as proof.
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This growth comes as former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) sits in jail awaiting the primary of his two-part trial, which is about to start on Oct. 3, 2023. The second trial is scheduled for March 2024.
On Sept. 21, judges decided against granting SBF early launch from jail. He argued he couldn’t adequately put together for trial from jail and mentioned it violated his First Amendment rights underneath the United States Constitution.
On the identical day, Judge Lewis Kaplan granted a motion proposed by the Department of Justice that bars the testimony of SBF’s key witnesses.
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