Besides the fraud case against the bankrupt crypto exchange and its co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried, The Department of Justice (DOJ) has opened an additional criminal investigation into FTX’s missing assets.
Bloomberg reported on December 27th a person familiar with the case informed that Federal prosecutors at DOJ are investigating an alleged cybercrime that stole more than $370 million from FTX. Because the investigations are still underway, he wanted to remain anonymous.
FTX and the DoJ did not immediately reply to a request for comment from Bloomberg, and a Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office representative said he could not confirm the matter or make any comments on it.
Last month, only hours after FTX declared bankruptcy in the United States, hackers stole millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency from the defunct exchange. Then began to convert the stolen money into Bitcoin.
Although the stolen money was converted into many other digital currencies, the majority, more than $280 million, was turned into ETH. Co-founder of Elliptic, who spoke with CNBC, said the hackers turn ETH into RenBTC, a crypto product that is then turned into BTC via a bridge.
However, concerns about the cryptocurrency industry’s future have increased due to the FTX collapse after the troubled exchange revealed a severe liquidity shortage.
DOJ FTX Hack Investigation
It was confirmed by the source that US officials had been successful in freezing part of the stolen funds. However, the frozen assets only make up a small portion of the total sum.
The report added that uncertainty exists regarding whether this breach was an inside job or the work of a hacker looking to profit from the vulnerabilities of a struggling company.
Nevertheless, the sum taken is a lot less than the alleged misuse of billions of dollars by Bankman-Fried. Authorities claim he illegally acquired $1.8 billion from investors and used it to place high-risk bets at Alameda Research and for personal expenses.
The report stated that in relation to FTX, which a US prosecutor referred to as an epic fraud, the US Department of Justice accused SBF of causing billions of dollars in damages. While an accusation of cyber crimes, which has a potential 10-year jail term, may be made in connection with the new investigation.
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