The United States Department of Justice has launched a criminal investigation into a potential hacking that made off with $372 million in FTX assets just hours after it filed bankruptcy, according to Bloomberg who cited a person familiar with the case. This is said to be separate from the federal fraud charges brought against FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried, who was extradited to the United States from the Bahamas last week.
This latest revelation in the entire FTX debacle falls in line with statements by the new FTX chief executive, John J Ray III, who said last month that there was “unauthorized access” to FTX assets the day it filed for bankruptcy. It remains unknown if the hacking was part of an inside job or done externally by a group taking advantage of FTX’s vulnerability at the time.
The $372 million, however, pales in comparison to the nearly $10 billion in customer funds that were stolen and misused by Bankman-Fried to back his crypto trading firm Alameda Research and political campaigns in the United States.
