Sam Bankman-Fried received $2.2 billion from FTX affiliates, court documents say | Sam Bankman-Fried

Sam Bankman-Fried, a co-founder of FTX, received more than $2bn (£1.7bn) from entities linked to the collapsed cryptocurrency exchange into his personal accounts, according to court documents.

Bankman-Fried and five members of his inner circle transferred a total of $3.2 billion into their personal accounts through “payments and loans,” according to US bankruptcy court documents in Delaware prepared by FTX’s new management.

FTX was once worth as much as $40 billion, but quickly collapsed in November after a surge in customer withdrawals as rival exchange Binance reversed a plan to save the competitor. FTX admitted that it did not have sufficient assets in reserve to meet the sudden increase in customer demand.

The collapse sent shockwaves through the digital asset industry in what has been described as a “crypto winter” and a “Lehman Brothers moment” for the sector.

Bankman-Fried, who was the poster boy for the crypto industry, now faces 12 federal charges and is awaiting trial after pleading not guilty to fraud while running FTX. He has been accused of securities fraud and extracting funds from the platform for personal gain.

The transferred funds, which included $2.2 billion received by Bankman-Fried, came mainly from Alameda Research, a crypto-trading hedge fund affiliated with FTX.

Three FTX insiders – Gary Wang, Nishad Singh and Caroline Ellison – were transferred a combined total of more than $800 million. They have pleaded guilty and are cooperating with the prosecution.

Ellison, the former Alameda executive who received $6 million, has said the hedge fund had “an unlimited line of credit at FTX.com” from 2019 to 2022.

FTX, now led by a new CEO, John Ray, said the $3.2 billion does not include $240 million in “political and charitable donations,” “luxury property in the Bahamas” and “substantial transfers,” the Financial Times reported.

Ray is leading the effort to recover cryptocurrency and other assets to return to the millions of FTX customers expected to lose money due to the bankruptcy. Their accounts have been frozen since the collapse.

The company has also asked to return hundreds of millions of dollars in political donations made to celebrities, charities and Republican and Democratic politicians.

Bankman-Fried is in custody at her parents’ home in California until her trial begins – expected to be in October.

An attorney for Bankman-Fried has been contacted for comment.