FTX Bahamas Co-CEO Tipped Off Bahamian Authorities About Customer Funds Sent to Alameda

Ryan Salame told the SCB on November 9 that FTX sent customer funds to Alameda to cover its financial losses.

SBF looks over his shoulder as Co-CEO of FTX Bahamas lurks behind him.
  • New Bahamian court filings show that FTX Digital Markets former co-CEO Ryan Salame contacted the Securities Commission of the Bahamas (SCB) on November 9. Salame alleged that the exchange sent customer funds to Alameda Research.
  • Salame said the funds were sent to โ€œcover financial losses of Alameda.โ€
  • Salame also said these transfers were โ€œnot allowed or consented to by their clients.โ€
  • According to Salame, only former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX co-founder Gary Wang, and FTX director of engineering Nishad Singh had the required access to move the funds to Alameda.

Ryan Salame, the former co-CEO of FTX Digital Markets, a Bahamian entity of FTX, told Bahamian authorities that the now-defunct exchange sent customer funds to Alameda Research, new Bahamian court filings show.

According to the records filed on December 14, Salame contacted the Securities Commission of the Bahamas (SCB) on November 9. He claimed that FTX sent customer funds to Alameda, SBFโ€™s sister hedge fund, to โ€œcover financial losses of Alameda.โ€

Sponsored

Salame also said that the transfer of funds was โ€œnot allowed or consented to by their clients.โ€ He added that only three people had access to the systems to do that. They were Bankman-Fried, FTX co-founder Gary Wang, and FTX director of engineering Nishad Singh. This statement is consistent with the rumor that Bankman-Fried engineered a backdoor system to funnel customer funds to Alameda.

Salame has been quiet on social media since FTXโ€™s bankruptcy. His last post on Twitter on November 7 reads:ย 

โ€œItโ€™s so powerful learning who your friends are! Very excited to grow with them in the long term. Itโ€™s not hard to genuinely figure out who cares about customers and who doesnโ€™t if you look past the insanity.โ€

On November 10, a day after Salameโ€™s reported whistleblowing, the SCB froze FTX Digital Marketsโ€™ assets and appointed a liquidator. On November 11, FTX Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. FTX then suffered an apparent hack that drained the exchange of more than $400 million.

However, the SCB later acknowledged that it ordered FTX to transfer its assets to government-controlled wallets, seemingly confirming it was behind the โ€œhack.โ€ At the same time, FTXโ€™s new CEO, John Ray III, said that access to the exchange and the subsequent transfers were unauthorized.

Have Other FTX Insiders Blown the Whistle?

Salame seems to be the first FTX insider to blow the whistle. However, rumors have been circulating on social media that Alamedaโ€™s former CEO, Caroline Ellison, will also throw Bankman-Fried under the bus.

Ellison was reportedly spotted at a cafe in New York City on December 5. Users on Twitter were quick to speculate that Ellison is in the U.S. to cooperate with authorities. They believe she aims to obtain a โ€œget out of jail free cardโ€ and gain immunity.

The rumors have only intensified since the sudden arrest of Bankman-Fried on November 13. Subsequent charges of money laundering, wire fraud, and other conspiracies followed. However, thereโ€™s no official confirmation that Ellison played any role in this.

Thereโ€™s also no information on Gary Wang, Nishad Singh, former Alameda co-CEO Sam Trabucco, and other FTX insidersโ€™ whereabouts or their involvement in the FTX conspiracy.

On the Flipside

  • Itโ€™s unclear what role Salame played in the FTX debacle or if he had anything to do with sending customer funds to Alameda.
  • Other reports suggest that FTX sent customer funds to Alameda for quite some time. Reports say engaging in risky bets and maximizing profits was an ongoing practice.

Why You Should Care

Ryan Salameโ€™s decision to inform Bahamian regulators of FTX commingling customer funds shows how fragile and chaotic the internal state of the exchange was before the bankruptcy filings. Investors should be extra careful when deciding what to believe in the FTX debacle.

This article is for information purposes only and should not be considered trading or investment advice. Nothing herein shall be construed as financial, legal, or tax advice. Trading forex, cryptocurrencies, and CFDs pose a considerable risk of loss.

Author
Arturas Skur

Arturas Skur is a cryptocurrency news reporter at DailyCoin who covers Web 3.0 domains, DeFi, and Ethereum Layer-2s. With over five years of experience in journalism and public relations, Arturas brings his critical thinking and analytical abilities to deliver insightful news stories. In his free time, he enjoys hiking, playing with his dog, and reading.

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