Sam Bankman-Fried may have been involved in the Terra-Luna collapse

The US Federal Prosecutor’s Office is investigating whether FTX founder Сем Бенкман-Фрід" href="https://noworries.media/biography/sem-benkman-frid/" data-bio-id="3697">Sam Bankman-Fried was involved in the collapse of TerraUSD and Luna. According to a recent New York Times report, law enforcement officials believe that Fried may have manipulated the price of Terraform Labs assets to benefit his own companies. In May 2022, the Terra UST stablecoin lost its peg to $ 1, which caused real chaos in the cryptocurrency market.

JUST IN: Federal prosecutors are investigating Sam Bankman-Fried & Alameda Research for market manipulation that led to the collapse of $LUNA and $UST.

— Watcher. Guru (@WatcherGuru) December 8, 2022

The investigation launched by the New York prosecutor’s office is still in its early stages, so the former FTX CEO’s connection to Terra’s collapse still needs to be carefully analyzed. The New York Times report states: «The matter is part of a broader investigation into the collapse of Mr. Bankman-Fried's cryptocurrency empire in the Bahamas and the potential misappropriation of billions of dollars in client funds.»

According to an influential American media outlet, the TerraUSD drop was caused by an increase in the number of orders for the sale of the cryptocurrency. The source said that all orders came from FTX. In addition, FTX US attracted the attention of the US prosecutor’s office a few months before the collapse, as law enforcement officials investigated whether the crypto exchange violated US laws related to money laundering. Mr. Benkman-Fried denied all the accusations. «I was not aware of any market manipulation and certainly never intended to participate in it,» said the former FTX CEO.

As a reminder, Sam Bankman-Fried has hired a lawyer who previously defended Mexican drug cartel head Joaquin Guzman, who was sentenced to life imprisonment, in court. It is noteworthy that the US authorities have not yet filed any official charges against Benkman-Fried, but the FTX founder is already preparing to defend his interests in court.