Prosecutors alleged that the disgraced crypto executive was hoping for better treatment from foreign regulators, which could potentially allow him to regain control of FTX

FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried was looking to reclaim control of his fallen crypto exchange by moving its assets to other regulators he hoped would go easy on him, according to the Department of Justice (DoJ).

The Justice Department claimed in a court filing on Monday that Bankman-Fried attempted to postpone FTX’s bankruptcy proceedings in late last year in order to move funds from the defunct crypto exchange to the jurisdiction of regulators in other countries. Prosecutors alleged that the crypto executive was hoping for better treatment from foreign regulators, which could potentially permit him to reclaim control of FTX, according to the filing.

Bankman-Fried has earlier said that he regretted the decision to have FTX file for bankruptcy in November 2022, shortly after the crypto exchange suffered from ‘significant’ liquidity issues and paused customer withdrawals. The bankruptcy filing removed Bankman-Fried from company leadership and revealed a number of accounting scandals within the exchange, like customer deposits being merged with Bankman-Fried’s crypto trading arm Alameda Research.

But the former crypto executive has denied the misuse of customer funds, and has condemned the new leadership of FTX. He has also maintained that parts of FTX continue to be solvent, in spite of the exchange’s lack of record-keeping and chaotic balance sheet.

Prosecutors also say that although the crypto exchange froze customer withdrawals in late last year, Bankman-Fried unfroze accounts in the Bahamas and allowed millions in customer withdrawals, to show his gratitude for the island nation where the exchange was headquartered.

We are deeply grateful for what The Bahamas has done for us, and deeply committed to it, Bankman-Fried wrote in a letter at the time to the Bahamas attorney general. We are also deeply sorry about this mess.

Bankman-Fried and FTX co-founder Gary Wang were also said to take control of $546 million of Robinhood stock last year, which prosecutors said was illegally bought with funds from Alameda. The filing added that the purchase was an attempt to cover the misuse of FTX customer funds. The Justice Department has seized over $450 million worth of shares.