U.S DoJ Launches Probe Into $372 Million FTX Hack Following Bankruptcy Filing
- The U.S. Department of Justice has launched a criminal probe into last month’s FTX exploit.
- Authorities have been able to freeze a portion of the stolen funds.
- The investigation is being led by the DoJ’s National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team.
- Former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried previously indicated that the hack may have been an inside job.
The controversial FTX hack last month, which led to a loss of more than $370 million, has once again been brought into the limelight. The United States Department of Justice has launched a criminal probe into this matter. According to a report by Bloomberg, this probe is separate from the fraud case that former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is currently facing in Manhattan.
Funds exploited from FTX have been frozen by authorities
The investigation into the hack is being headed by the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team of the Department of Justice. This team consists of a network of prosecutors who specialize in digital asset investigation. A person familiar with the matter has revealed that a portion of the exploited funds has been frozen by authorities. This investigation is separate from the fraud charges that have been brought against Sam Bankman-Fried. The former CEO had previously indicated that the exploit may have been an inside job.
The hack was initially reported by the crypto Twitter community. FTX employees subsequently confirmed to popular on-chain sleuth ZachXBT on Twitter that hundreds of millions of dollars were flowing out of FTX-owned wallets. The initial figure was close to $650 million since FTX employees had started transferring assets into cold wallets as a precaution.
Following the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings – FTX US and FTX [dot] com initiated precautionary steps to move all digital assets to cold storage. Process was expedited this evening – to mitigate damage upon observing unauthorized transactions.
The exploit was later acknowledged by current CEO John Ray III who stated that there had been “unauthorized access” within hours of filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy on 11 November. The days following the hack saw the perpetrator swapping the exploited tokens for ETH. These funds were then bridged to Bitcoin using the RenBridge service. The perpetrator also employed mixer services to obscure the money trail.
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