---
title: "FTX says a former top lawyer helped raid customer accounts"
description: "Bankrupt FTX Trading Ltd. is suing the former top compliance officer to the crypto empire, accusing the lawyer of helping company founder and alleged fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried raid customer funds."
type: "NewsArticle"
publisher: "Daily Maverick"
site: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za"
section: "Business Maverick"
author: "Bloomberg"
author_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/author/bloomberg/"
canonical_url: "https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2023-06-29-ftx-says-a-former-top-lawyer-helped-raid-customer-accounts/"
published: "2023-06-29T06:01:36"
lang: "en-ZA"
word_count: 243
---

# FTX says a former top lawyer helped raid customer accounts

> Bankrupt FTX Trading Ltd. is suing the former top compliance officer to the crypto empire, accusing the lawyer of helping company founder and alleged fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried raid customer funds.

By Bloomberg · Published 29 June 2023, 08:01 SAST

## Key points
- Daily Maverick reports on the latest lawsuit filed by FTX Group against attorney Daniel Friedberg, alleging that he enabled top FTX Group managers to misuse billions of dollars of customer funds.
- Daniel Friedberg allegedly enabled FTX Group managers to misuse billions of dollars of customer funds.
- FTX has filed a lawsuit in US Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington against Friedberg and others.
- The company is trying to recover money that was wrongly transferred out of customer accounts.
- Bankruptcy rules allow FTX to recover payments made before the firm filed Chapter 11.

## Content

Daniel Friedberg allegedly enabled top FTX Group managers to misuse billions of dollars of customer funds, according to the lawsuit filed last night in US Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington.

“Under the cloak of this wide-ranging con game, Friedberg and others facilitated the routing of billions of dollars in purported profits of the FTX Group to the FTX Insiders, and their families, friends, and other acquaintances through purported personal ‘loans,’ bonuses, ‘investments,’ and all other means of transfer, including real estate purchases and hundreds of millions of dollars in charitable and political contributions,” FTX said in the suit.

On Monday, FTX released an update on the alleged fraud that caused the company to fail. In that report, FTX managers said the transfer of customer funds was facilitated by a senior attorney whom it didn’t name.

Friedberg declined to comment. [Bankman-Fried](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-23/new-charges-to-be-unsealed-in-bankman-fried-case) has pleaded not guilty to criminal charges related to FTX’s collapse.

The complaint is the latest filed by FTX to recover money the company says was wrongly transferred out of customer accounts. Last week, the company sued venture capital firm K5 Global and its principals in an effort to recover $700-million.

Both lawsuits are part of a broader effort by the company’s new CEO, John Ray, and his advisers to recover funds that can repay creditors, including customers whose cryptocurrency was held on the exchange before it collapsed in November. Bankruptcy rules let FTX recover payments made before the firm filed Chapter 11. **DM**