Turkish regulator seizes Sam Bankman-Fried’s assets

The Turkish MASAK has opened an investigation into the founder of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried, on suspicion of fraud. Local media reported, citing the country’s Ministry of Finance.

As part of the investigation, all local accounts and assets of the entrepreneur, as well as affiliates, have been frozen.

The Turkish Finance Minister Nureddin Nebati urged ‘utmost caution’ when dealing with the cryptocurrency market, given its risks.

Meanwhile, a form for affected customers appeared on the FTX website. After completing it, users should contact customer support to have funds refunded to their bank account.

On average, around 187,000 unique visitors from Turkey accessed the FTX site per month. The country ranked sixth on this metric. The leader was South Korea with 297,000 visits.

Earlier in November, FTX announced bankruptcy due to liquidity problems.

According to reports, the U.S. Department of Justice has everything needed to open a criminal case against Bankman-Fried and other executives of the platform.

Earlier, the SEC and CFTC also began examining the connections between FTX with its U.S. subsidiary and Alameda Research.

Bloomberg deemed the return of client funds unlikely, with a ‘hole’ in the balance of about $8 billion.

For more on the collapse of FTX and Alameda Research, see ForkLog’s special feature.

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