FTX Seeks to Recover $300M Paid to the Leadership of Its European Affiliate

FTX's bankruptcy lawyers have sought court orders to recover $323 million paid to the leadership of FTX Europe, a subsidiary of the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange. The amount is believed to be part of a larger sum of money allegedly misappropriated by the former executives of FTX.

According to a court filing yesterday (Wednesday) seen by CoinDesk, Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of FTX and the FTX Group, allegedly paid the money for the acquisition of DAAG, a Swiss company that was later renamed FTX Europe.

According to the lawyers who submitted the matter on behalf of FTX and Maclaurin Investments, an entity owned by Alameda Research, FTX Europe had limited resources.

FTX Traces Customers' Assets

FTX is now seeking that a Delaware-based bankruptcy court handling its bankruptcy proceedings order that the funds paid to the individuals overseeing FTX Europe, Patrick Gruhn, Branson Willaims, Robin Matzke, and Lorem Ipsum, be returned to the company.

On top of that, FTX's bankruptcy lawyers informed the court that the leadership of FTX Europe received approximately $100 million for the acquisition of K-DNA, a licensed entity in the European Economic Area, which was later integrated with FTX Europe for €2 million.

The FTX Group has also asked the court to stop the remaining payments of more than $50 million to FTX Europe's leadership. In the filing, the exchange’s lawyers claimed that FTX Europe is not valuable and cannot be sold.

FTX Europe

In April, a court in Switzerland granted FTX permission to explore the potential sale of FTX Europe. The permission was granted following a petition filed by FTX Europe to restructure its debt amid the bankruptcy filing by the parent company, FTX.

Earlier in the year, FTX Europe announced that it had initiated processes to allow its users to withdraw funds. The subsidiary had only been in operation for eight months before the collapse of its parent company FTX.

FTX’s bankruptcy team released a report in June that the cryptocurrency exchange had so far recovered $7 billion out of the $8.7 million owed to customers. In the report, the team noted that the extensive commingling of funds complicated the efforts to recover the remaining assets, Finance Magnates reported.

The former exchange’s executives reportedly misappropriated customers' funds in speculative trading, political donations, and investments in luxury real estate in the Bahamas. Sam Bankman-Fried is facing several federal charges related to fraud and conspiracy.