Alameda Wallets Become Active Days After SBF Bail, Community Mulls Foul Play (cointelegraph.com) 35
The crypto wallets associated with now-bankrupt trading firm Alameda Research, the sister company of FTX, were seen transferring out funds just days after the former CEO Sam Bankman Fried was released on a $250 million bond. CoinTelegraph reports: The transfer of funds from Alameda wallets raised community curiosity, but more than that, the way in which these funds were transferred grabbed the community's attention. The Alameda wallet was found to be swapping bits of ERC-20s for Ether/Tether, and then the ETH and USDT were funneled through instant exchangers and mixers. For example, a wallet address that starts with 0x64e9 received over 600 ETH from wallets that belong to Alameda, part of it was swapped to USDT while the other part of the transaction was sent to ChangeNow.
On-chain analyst ZachXBT noted that the Alameda wallet was eventually swapping the funds for Bitcoin using decentralized exchanges such as FixedFloat and ChangeNow. These platforms are often used by hackers and exploiters to hide their transaction routes. Many speculated that the pattern in which these funds are being swapped looks like an exploiter, but given Bankman-Fried's known criminal past now, many speculated it could be an insider job to take out whatever is left in those wallets. Others questioned the bail conditions and asked why was he given access to the internet. One user wrote that the former CEO was "desperately trying to funnel money out," adding, "why did his bail condition include no computer/internet access?"
On-chain analyst ZachXBT noted that the Alameda wallet was eventually swapping the funds for Bitcoin using decentralized exchanges such as FixedFloat and ChangeNow. These platforms are often used by hackers and exploiters to hide their transaction routes. Many speculated that the pattern in which these funds are being swapped looks like an exploiter, but given Bankman-Fried's known criminal past now, many speculated it could be an insider job to take out whatever is left in those wallets. Others questioned the bail conditions and asked why was he given access to the internet. One user wrote that the former CEO was "desperately trying to funnel money out," adding, "why did his bail condition include no computer/internet access?"
Why is there any money in any of these wallets (Score:2)
Re: Why is there any money in any of these wallets (Score:2)
Guessing the are running behind the curve in terms of policy and procedure?
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Is there something I'm missing? Leaving money in wallets when you don't know who has the private keys seems negligent.
How do you propose they move money out of wallets they don't have the private keys to? I think you are missing quite a lot.
Re: Why is there any money in any of these wallets (Score:5, Insightful)
Providing keys to all alameda wallets should have been a condition of his bail
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This.
And then civil forfeiture [wikipedia.org].
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As to 1., specious because that is only appropriate after conviction.
Well, there's appropriate and then there's what the law says. Currently, the law allows for seizure of assets/property if there is the suspicion of a crime or complaint.
so any and all assets ought to go to the trustee
Ideally, yes. But this particular group of plaintiffs and trustees is one that I have a hard time feeling any sympathy for. So if the trustees have to fight to get it back, that should be a lesson not to get involved in high risk, questionably legal dealings.
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As to 1., specious because that is only appropriate after conviction.
Currently, the law allows for seizure of assets/property if there is the suspicion of a crime or complaint.
You are incorrect. There is no requirement that there be an actual criminal complaint which can be defended. The term "suspicion" is so vague that it effectively has no more meaning than "I want your stuff"
Re:Why is there any money in any of these wallets (Score:5, Insightful)
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Also allowed to put his own familyâ(TM)s prop (Score:2)
The whole family was involved in FTX, bought a swanky property with the proceeds of the fraud, and now have put that property up in the bail bonds process.
The whole thing stinks, SBF has the opportunity and means and already showed willingness to get to other countries with limited to no judicial cooperation with any Western country. He gets indicted the day before he wouldâ(TM)ve testified in Congress, he gets every opportunity thrown at him to walk away.
Re:Also allowed to put his own family's prop (Score:2)
The whole family was involved in FTX, bought a swanky property with the proceeds of the fraud, and now have put that property up in the bail bonds process.
The whole thing stinks, SBF has the opportunity and means and already showed willingness to get to other countries with limited to no judicial cooperation with any Western country. He gets indicted the day before he would've testified in Congress, he gets every opportunity thrown at him to walk away.
Please stop repeating this lie. He was never going to testify in congress. He said he would appear via zoom from the Bahamas.
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The whole family was involved in FTX, bought a swanky property with the proceeds of the fraud, and now have put that property up in the bail bonds process.
The whole thing stinks, SBF has the opportunity and means and already showed willingness to get to other countries with limited to no judicial cooperation with any Western country. He gets indicted the day before he would've testified in Congress, he gets every opportunity thrown at him to walk away.
Please stop repeating this lie. He was never going to testify in congress. He said he would appear via zoom from the Bahamas.
The distinction between zoom and in-person testimony to congress doesn't really matter for the sake of their implication. They were saying that he was arrested to stop him from speaking or being questioned publicly on the record by congress. For instance if he was questioned by the opposite party about the political donations, that might become an embarrassing talking point and news story for the next election.
I'm not specifically saying that's why he was arrested, just that for the sake of the implied ar
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The whole family was involved in FTX, bought a swanky property with the proceeds of the fraud, and now have put that property up in the bail bonds process.
The whole thing stinks, SBF has the opportunity and means and already showed willingness to get to other countries with limited to no judicial cooperation with any Western country. He gets indicted the day before he would've testified in Congress, he gets every opportunity thrown at him to walk away.
Please stop repeating this lie. He was never going to testify in congress. He said he would appear via zoom from the Bahamas.
The distinction between zoom and in-person testimony to congress doesn't really matter for the sake of their implication. They were saying that he was arrested to stop him from speaking or being questioned publicly on the record by congress. For instance if he was questioned by the opposite party about the political donations, that might become an embarrassing talking point and news story for the next election.
I'm not specifically saying that's why he was arrested, just that for the sake of the implied argument it's completely irrelevant that he was going to testify remotely, and in no way a "lie" to say he was going to testify.
Really? He was never going to testify in person because he knew he would be arrested. Also, since he would not be under oath, that would not be considered "testimony before congress."
It was all BS. He was never going to "testify before congress", and any statement to the contrary is a lie. You got conned, get over it already. He was a con artist and a crook right from the beginning.
This is absolutely hilarious (Score:4, Interesting)
Have to say, I haven't laughed this much in a while. Watching the fraud happen in almost real-time is something one couldn't imagine ever seeing in their lifetime.
I can't wait for the next installment of "Frauds R Us" to see how they outdo themselves.
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I wonder what his plan is. Plead guilty and try to get as short a sentence as possible, hoping they can't tie this stuff to him so that he can access it when he's out?
You don't think the SBF's being monitored? (Score:3)
Letting him have access and wire-tapping his systems could be an even smarter thing.
Given the massive amount of money involved I'd leave the door open for him to transfer funds out, record everything he does as evidence, and freeze the funds the moment they convert to cash.
Re:You don't think the SBF's being monitored? (Score:5, Interesting)
He could have had an amazing business, but his arrogance on controlling everything caused his downfall.
He gave his business opponent the means to destroy him
He has completely ruined his parents reputation, and may very well take them down with him
He's looking at spending the rest of his life in prison
There will be one or more three letter agencies helping the various Agencies to lock him up forever. If anyone makes the point that his services may have been used for money laundering or assisting terrorists then everyone will be involved - FBI, CIA, NSA, etc.
VPN"s are not magic - they don't provide protection against on-host malware or other cyber-security tools. Who owns the VPN? Lots of luck buying an encrypted satellite connection with the name 'Sam Bankman-Fried' - his name and face is too well known. Don't ascribe to genius that which can be explained by good luck.
Not even trying to hide the fraud (Score:2)
How does someone who is broke pay $250 million bail?
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When you make bail you typically forfeit about 10%.
Re:Not even trying to hide the fraud (Score:5, Interesting)
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Bankman-Fried Doing It Wrong ... (Score:4, Interesting)
Sam Bankman-Fried is doing it wrong ....
If he was smart, he would have disappeared within days of his Ponzi scheme collapsing.
Proves that most criminals are overconfident, stupid or both ...
He could also have emulated Gerald Cotten, the Canadian who founded QuadrigaCX, who most likely faked his own death when his crypto exchange Ponzi scheme buckled ...
And just a week ago, some addresses tied to QuadrigaCX woke up [slashdot.org]!
This is an early report on Quadriga founder Gerald Cotten [www.cbc.ca], and that he was a fraudster running a Ponzi scheme.
Here is a great documentary on this whole fiasco: Dead Man's Switch: A Crypto Mystery [www.cbc.ca] (which may not play outside Canada though).
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"why did his bail condition include no computer/in (Score:1)
Um. Why did his bail conditions include no breathing oxygen?
Because US Federal judges are an inbred stupid group of idiots who know nothing of technology. Trusting them to come up with restrictions on SBF is like asking a retarded coyote to watch some super-hyper-aware-chickens in their coop.
It's done. It was only preventable BEFORE it was done. That's how "prevention" works. The US "legal system" is only about killing people of color and giving qualified immunity to the cops that do it. All the rest
No internet access condition is a waste of time (Score:2)
ShOcKiNg!?!!???! (Score:2)