Although Sam Bankman-Fried, the former CEO of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, was arrested earlier this week and denied bail, he remains angry about the case and what lies ahead for him.
“The arrest of Bankman-Fried was belated and rushed,” Matthew Barhoma, founder of Barhoma Law and Power Trial Attorneys, told TechCrun.
What we've seen may just be the beginning, Barhoma suggested: "Expect more FTX-related lawsuits from Bankman-Fried and others."
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) filed allegations of investor fraud against Bankman-Fried. Investigations into other security breaches and others are ongoing.
As the situation evolves, Taxbit's head of government solutions, Miles Fuller, agrees with Berhoma that the additional rates will rise. “The arrest of the SBF was not unexpected,” he said.
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Damian Williams said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon, when asked if the agencies would press charges against others allegedly involved in the FTX crash: "I'll put it this way: we're clearly not done."
“Five of the eight charges are conspiracy charges,” Fuller said. "A conspiracy, by definition, requires the participation of more than one person, so we must assume that at least some other persons can be identified and charged with a conspiracy."
According to Joby Carpenter, Global Head of Crypto Assets and Illicit Finance at ACAMS, there is a lot of speculation about the extent of the criminal activity and who was involved in the FTX saga. “The indictment, which was uncovered by the US Department of Justice, alleges massive fraud, money laundering and violations of US campaign finance laws. But there's more here," he told TechCrunch.
Despite the confusion with FTX, the crypto market looks like the future.