The country’s Financial Crimes Investigation Board, popularly known as MASAK, has taken possession of assets belonging to former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried after the failure of his primary company.

After Bankman Fried’s primary firm filed for bankruptcy, the Turkish Government’s MASAK made an official notice outlining preliminary findings and steps against the company. Nov. 14 marked the start of MASAK’s inquiries.

The Turkish investigation authority discovered that FTX had mismanaged user funds, embezzled money from clients through dubious transactions, and manipulated market supply and demand by allowing users to purchase and sell listed cryptocurrencies that were not backed by genuine cryptocurrency holdings.

The assets of Bankman-Fried and its associates were confiscated by MASAK as a result of these discoveries, which led to the conclusion that there was “high criminal suspicion” over the aforementioned issues.

Although FTX TR’s website is still operational, all it displays to visitors is a notice with directions on how to get account balances. The Turkish identity number of each user’s separate Turkish lira accounts as well as their IBAN details are requested to be sent via a link.

According to FTX TR’s LinkedIn post, since the debut of its mobile application earlier in 2022, the exchange has done an average of $500 million to $600 million in transactions each month with over 110,000 customers. 27 employees were working for the business. The post also mentioned the company’s efforts to transfer FTX TR user funds to users’ bank accounts. 

FTX TR was managed by a former Binance executive who previously managed global business growth in Turkey, the Commonwealth of Independent States and the European Union. To find out if the local operation was aware of illegal business practices by its parent firm, Cointelegraph contacted the former FTX TR head. If so, this article will be updated.

Turkey ranked sixth among all nations in terms of unique visits to the FTX website, with an average monthly figure of 187,000, according to a local media source.

The bankruptcy process for FTX is now being overseen by new CEO John Ray III. The person in charge of analyzing the historic collapse of Enron in the early 2000s said the FTX fiasco was the worst thing he had ever witnessed in his line of work.

In order to maximize recoverable value for stakeholders, FTX’s global assets are now being strategically reviewed as part of the bankruptcy procedures.