Buried in the extremely complex bankruptcy filing of assets, real, phantom and virtual, of the billion dollar cryptocurrency trading platform FTX TRADING LTD., is a surprising listing: a large, perhaps even controlling, interest in an obscure, regional and extremely small Washington State bank. The numerous backstories now afoot about FTX raise these issues:
1. Why and how did Federal and state regulators ever approve a major investment in a regional bank by a company, incorporated in the offshore financial centre of Antigua & Barbuda, and headquartered in the Bahamas ? Was there are due diligence performed on the purchaser, and if so, we need to see it forthwith. What was extent of the relationship with the controversial Antigua PM Gaston Browne and certain lawyers close to his government?
2. The New Age digital bank, MOONSTONE Bank, which was to be created out of the small Washington bank, FARMINGTON STATE BANK, which has literally three employees, which means most likely zero compliance at that bank, and which recently picked up three very large million dollar depositors; is this a money laundering machine in formation? What are the names and addresses of those new mega-depositors? I frankly don't care about their rights to confidentiality under BSA; they must be identified by law enforcement to rule out financial crime.
3. The links and connection between Farmington and FTX, and the opaque offshore bank located in Nassau. Bahamas, DELTEC BANK AND TRUST LTD., must be investigated, as reportedly there is joint ownership of the Washington bank and the Bahamian bank. Journalists who have approached Deltec state that their queries have not been responded to by the bank.
4. If we take as fact the diversion of literally billions of dollars, from customer accounts in FTX, diverted to their associated hedger fund, ALAMEDA RESEARCH, how can we be sure that FTX won't also loot Farmington if it needs capital?
5. WTF are FTX compliance officers in all this? They may have run off, but US law enforcement needs to locate and interview them.
This scandal could be masking massive money laundering; who is going to do a deep dive from a money laundering perspective?
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