Sam Bankman-Fried accused of cashing out $684,000 in cryptocurrency while under house arrest

Former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried cashed out $684,000 in cryptocurrencies, potentially violating the terms of his bail release. This was stated by a DeFi analyst using the pseudonym BowTiedIguana.

Did disgraced crypto founder Sam Bankman-Fried just cash out $684k to a crypto exchange in the Seychelles while under house arrest?

His release conditions are that he not spend more than $1,000 without permission from the court.

Let’s examine the evidence on chain 👇

— BowTiedIguana (@BowTiedIguana) December 30, 2022

On December 22, the Southern District of New York judge set Bankman-Fried’s bail at $250 million. One of the conditions of his release was that he not spend more than $1,000 without court approval.

According to BowTiedIguana’s analysis, on December 28 the address linked to the founder (0xD5758) sent the entire balance to Ethereum to a newly created wallet (0x7386d). The expert recalled that Bankman-Fried gained control of 0xD5758 in August 2020 from the anonymous SushiSwap creator known as Chef Nomi.

Over the next few hours, more than 100 deposits were received. Crypto worth $367,000 was sent from wallets associated with Alameda Research. Assets worth more than $322,000 had other sources.

tl;dr all ETH sent from SBF’s public wallet to newly created address 0x7386df2Cf7e9776bCE0708072c27d6a7135D51CB which, within hours, received transfers totaling $367k from 32 known Alameda Research wallets + $322k from other wallets; all sent to a Seychelles CEX or Ren BTC bridge

— BowTiedIguana (@BowTiedIguana) December 30, 2022

All consolidated funds were then sent to a Seychelles-registered exchange without KYC and into the Bitcoin network via the Ren Protocol bridge. The latter project financed by Alameda, the analyst noted.

«Since Ethereum’s blockchain is an immutable public ledger, these on-chain proofs are continually accessible to law enforcement and courts», BowTiedIguana said.

Not all commentators agreed with his assumption about a violation of bail terms.

I don’t know that this necessarily qualifies as \”spending\” money. They’re his assets already (or he’ll argue that at least). The bigger question is whether those assets are part of the bankruptcy estate and not actually his assets personally

— John Smith (@JohnSmi69178247) December 30, 2022

«I don’t know that this necessarily qualifies as “spending” money. They are already his assets (or he’ll argue that at least). The bigger question is whether these funds are part of the bankruptcy estate, and not actually his personal assets», wrote John Smith, a lawyer connected to the crypto industry.

Earlier, US prosecutors charged Bankman-Fried with eight criminal counts in the FTX collapse investigation.

Media reports that he is prepared to plead guilty to deceiving investors and stealing client funds. Earlier, former Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison and FTX co-founder Gary Wang reached a deal with prosecutors.

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