FTX ordered to pay $12.7M to customers, fraud victims

The now defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX and its sister company Alameda Research have been ordered to pay $12.7 million to their customers and fraud victims, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced Thursday. 

FTX will pay $8.7 million in restitution and another $4 million to compensate victims of the “massive fraudulent scheme” orchestrated by Sam Bankman-Fried. 

Bankman-Fried, who founded FTX and Alameda, was convicted late last year on federal fraud and conspiracy charges related to his role in FTX's collapse. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison in March. 

“Not only is this multi-billion dollar recovery for victims the largest such recovery in CFTC history, we achieved it with remarkable speed,” CFTC enforcement division director Ian McGinley said in a statement Thursday.  

“FTX’s massive fraud collapsed 21 months ago and in that time the CFTC investigated, filed a complaint, and achieved what many thought was impossible at the time of the collapse — a resolution to compensate victims for the losses they suffered,” he added. 

Following Thursday's court order, CFTC Chair Rostin Behnam emphasized the need for legislation on digital assets, like crypto, to "fill regulatory gaps."

“As I have been saying for years, this is just the tip of the iceberg,” Behnam said in a statement. “In the absence of digital asset legislation to fill regulatory gaps, entities will continue to operate in the shadows without these basic tools of sound regulation, sharpening their deceptive practices and continuing to dupe customers."