FTX was run as "personal fiefdom" - attorneys
STORY: FTX was run as a “personal fiefdom” of former boss Sam Bankman-Fried.
That was according to attorneys for the collapsed crypto exchange on Tuesday (November 22).
The comments came as the firm faced its first bankruptcy hearing at a court in Wilmington, Delaware.
Speaking there, a lawyer said FTX now planned to sell off healthy business units.
But he said it was the subject of cyber attacks, and had “substantial” missing assets.
He said $300 million had been spent on real estate such as homes and vacation properties for senior staff.
FTX, now under new boss John Ray, has also accused its former chief of seeking to undermine bankruptcy proceedings and trying to move assets overseas.
Bankman-Fried didn’t immediately reply when approached for comment.
In a separate filing this week, consultants said FTX had a cash balance of $1.24 billion as of Sunday (November 20).
That was substantially higher than previously thought.
However, Reuters has reported that Bankman-Fried secretly used $10 billion of customer money to prop up his trading business.
At least $1 billion of that appears to have vanished.
