Sam Bankman-Fried's roles, holdings and cases

analysisAccording to the CFTC's consent order, whose findings FTX Trading and Alameda accepted without a trial and admitted only for bankruptcy-discharge purposes and for proceedings involving the CFTC, Bankman-Fried founded Alameda Research in November 2017 and was its chief executive until August 2021, remaining a signatory on its bank accounts and keeping direct decision-making authority over its major trading, investment and financial decisions afterwards. With Gary Wang and Nishad Singh he founded FTX.com, which began operating in May 2019; the debtors date the founding of the Dotcom Silo to April 2019. FTX Trading Ltd.'s register names him among its first directors, and its Form D of November 2021 lists him as executive officer and director. He was chairman and a director of FTX Digital Markets from July 2021 and, according to an article by a Gibraltar law firm, sole registered director of FTX (Gibraltar) and a director of ZUBR Exchange; by the debtors' own account in their disclosure statement, he was the only director of Emergent Fidelity Technologies, which he owned 90% with Wang 10%. ^{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10}

analysisRay's first-day declaration puts his holdings at about 53% of West Realm Shires Inc., 90% of Alameda Research LLC and 67% of Clifton Bay Investments LLC directly and about 75% of FTX Trading Ltd. indirectly. The indirect stake was held by Paper Bird Inc., whose 1,000 common shares are all his according to its equity holder list; other debtor filings put Paper Bird's stake in FTX Trading at about 80% or 86%, the filings do not explain the differences, and none reconciles them with the holdings of the other founders. The holder lists of January 2023 give him 90% of Alameda Research LLC and 67% of Clifton Bay, and West Realm Shires' list shows him with 791,303,000 Class A and 1,116,389,000 Class B common shares and 109,409,190 Series A preferred shares. ^{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8}

analysisThe debtors' first interim report describes a group without an ultimate parent, organized as parallel chains under Bankman-Fried's ultimate control, in which he was viewed as having the final voice in all significant decisions and Singh and Wang largely deferred to him. The CFTC order, on the companies' limited admission, finds that he signed the core agreements of FTX Trading and Alameda and was a signatory on their bank accounts, and that at his direction FTX executives hid Alameda's $8 billion liability in a customer account. ^{1 2 3}

analysisRay's declaration records, at 30 September 2022, a $1 billion loan by Alameda Research Ltd. to Bankman-Fried and a $2.3 billion loan by Euclid Way Ltd. to Paper Bird Inc., on unaudited balance sheets Ray did not rely on. The SEC's complaint against Ellison and Wang alleges that he signed notes for more than $1.338 billion of Alameda loans from 2020 to 2022, twice as both borrower and lender, and lent himself $136 million in July 2022. The retained records contain no answer by Ellison or Wang to these allegations; without denying them they consented to final judgments, which the SEC filed for court approval in December 2025, and both had pleaded guilty in the criminal case. Bankman-Fried, not a defendant in that complaint, pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges arising from the same conduct, was convicted, sentenced to 25 years and lost his appeal. The debtors add that an Alameda account sent tens of millions of dollars to his personal account, booked as "Investment in Subsidiaries". ^{2 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 10}

analysisOn or about 7 November 2022 he posted that "FTX is fine. Assets are fine"; by late that day, the CFTC order finds on the same limited admission, FTX could not meet withdrawals, which he and others acknowledged internally was because customer funds had been misappropriated, while he publicly portrayed a liquidity problem. The debtors later estimated that about $8.7 billion of customer assets had been misappropriated from FTX.com by the petition date, an estimate made after they took control that changed as the analysis progressed, and the CFTC's order requires FTX Trading and Alameda to pay $8.7 billion in restitution through the plan's distributions. By an Omnibus Corporate Authority dated 10 November 2022 he authorised John J. Ray III's appointment as chief executive of the group companies and Stephen Neal's as chairman, a post the record does not show Neal took up, and at about 4:30 a.m. on 11 November he agreed to resign. ^{1 2 3 4 5 6}

analysisHe was extradited from the Bahamas on 21 December 2022. He pleaded not guilty, was convicted by a jury on seven counts of fraud and conspiracy and was sentenced on 28 March 2024 to 25 years in prison and more than $11 billion in forfeiture; according to docket entries from a public mirror of the court's docket, the Second Circuit affirmed in 2026 and his motion for a new trial was denied. The CFTC named him in its amended complaint of December 2022, and the claims agent's list of adversary proceedings in the case, which gives only captions and case numbers, includes two suits against him by Alameda companies. Turkey's financial crimes unit referred him for a money-laundering investigation in November 2022; its outcome is not recorded. ^{1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8}