Some things were repeatedly established: there was effectively no separation between the various companies under SBF’s control, and despite SBF’s recent claims that he’s had practically nothing to do with Alameda in the past few years, Ray said that FTX, Alameda, and the other entities were operated “as one company”. “There was a public distinction between the two,” he said, but that was about the extent of it, and assets were completely commingled.
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As to be expected, questions along the lines of “where the hell did all the money go?” were pretty frequent. The answer, as best they can tell today, seems to be: a mix of massive trading losses at Alameda, and personal loans made to SBF and other high-ups that were then used for investments, real estate, etc. Ray went on to say that the investments seem to have been made without any pro forma or valuation. "I'm really not quite sure how some of the purchase price numbers were derived, so it gives you a worry obviously that the purchases were overvalued."
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Some asked about the frankly shady business that seems to be happening with Bahamian regulators, who may be acting in concert with SBF, and Ray was frank:
Ray: Unlike Chapter 11, there's no transparency in the process in The Bahamas. We repeatedly asked [the Bahamian provisional liquidators] for clarity on what they've been doing and we've been shut down on that.
Rep. Steil (R-WI): They did not reply or it was unsatisfactory?
Ray: They put out statements that it was in the interest of Bahamian creditors, although our view is that it violated the automatic stay in bankruptcy.
Steil: "Do you believe that at that time Mr. Bankman-Fried was attempting to undermine Chapter 11 by expanding the scope, by moving assets to accounts under the control of Bahamian authorities?”
Ray: "It appears so."
Steil: "So it appears that he may be working to undermine the scope of US federal bankruptcy law."
Ray: "That's what it appears, yes."
Ray later said that “The pushback that we've gotten [from Bahamian liquidators] is sort of extraordinary in the context of bankruptcy. It raises questions, it seems irregular to me, there's lots of questions on our part, and obviously we're investigating.” When asked by Representative Ocasio-Cortez if SBF’s decision to briefly re-enable withdrawals for Bahamian customers might have been in exchange for the ability to retain control over FTX, Ray said, “We intend to investigate that very thing.”
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SBF’s repeated claims of ignorance on various goings-on at FTX and Alameda also came up a lot. Representative Gonzalez (R-OH) asked if it was possible, as SBF has claimed, that SBF might not have known about the backdoor in FTX’s trading systems to allow the movement of assets without raising red flags. “No,” said Ray.