Crypto Investment Firm Sues Signature Bank for Facilitating FTX Fraudulent Transfers: Report

British Virgin Islands-based investment management and cryptocurrency trading firm Statistica Capital has filed a lawsuit against New York-based Signature Bank, alleging that the financial institution facilitated the fraudulent activities of crypto exchange FTX before its collapse.

According to a Bloomberg report, the class suit was filed at the US District Court for the Southern District of New York in Manhattan on Monday. The complaint alleged that Signature facilitated and played a significant role in the FTX fraud.

Signature’s Alleged Role in FTX Fraud

Recall that FTX went bankrupt in November 2022 after suffering a severe liquidity crunch. While the exchange is still in court trying to figure out how founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) mishandled users’ funds, Signature Bank announced that it will be pulling away from the crypto space.

In December, the bank revealed that it was reducing its crypto-tied deposits by $8 billion to $10 billion, citing the 2022 bear market and FTX’s demise.

Last month, CryptoPotato reported when crypto exchange Binance warned its users that Signature had set its SWIFT transfer limit to $100,000, further limiting its exposure to the digital asset space.

While Signature continually steps away from the industry, its role in the collapse of FTX has not gone unnoticed. Statistica accused the bank of allowing the troubled exchange to combine user accounts with its blockchain network.

Signature did not report to appropriate authorities even though it noticed suspicious FTX transactions through its Signet blockchain payment network.

The complaint alleged that the New York-based bank had known about FTX’s fraudulent activities since June 2020. However, Signature allegedly facilitated the fraud by promoting the exchange to the public and failing to suspend the Alameda or FTX accounts.

Statistica filed the lawsuit as a proposed class action to enable it and other affected entities to recover damages from FTX’s collapse due to the Signature’s malfeasance.

FTX Moves to Recover Donations to Politicians

Meanwhile, new FTX administrators are trying to recover funds donated to politicians during SBF’s time as CEO. According to reports, the exchange’s founder and his cohorts donated about $93 million to such parties.

The crypto company has sent confidential messages to the beneficiaries, seeking the return of the donations by February 28.